Osseointegration: From physical disability to limitless freedom

Yes, this is a safe treatment. Surgeon Dr Jan Paul Frölke and rehabilitation specialist Dr Henk van de Meent, with their research team at Radboudumc Nijmegen, in collaboration with other major centres around the world, have followed all patients they have treated with an osseointegration prosthesis since 2009. They not only studied the benefits of this treatment but also identified the disadvantages and possible complications. Initially, it was thought that the implant would give rise to infection of the bone and loosening of the implant. Research published in US international scientific journals showed in the first 84 patients with an osseointegration prosthesis that the risk of loosening is very small. In 1 patient, the implant loosened and had to be replaced. Follow-up studies could confirm this, but more than two-thirds of people were found to have regular stoma irritation and stoma infections. Particularly in people who smoked and those with high body weight. However, the ostomy symptoms were easily treatable and often transient. Due to recently developed new surgical techniques, stoma problems are now rare and the symptoms are less. Stoma complaints are now seen mostly in the first two years after surgery.