Doctors successfully implant prosthesis into patient’s bone in medical first for Ukraine

The UNBROKEN rehabilitation center in Ukraine's western city of Lviv hosted a remarkable operation: surgeons inserted a prosthesis into the patient's bone.

The First Medical Association of Lviv reported on Facebook that this was the first case of osseointegration prosthetics in the history of Ukrainian medicine.

The first patient to have a prosthesis implanted into his bone was 56-year-old Ihor Krupnov, a veteran of the Russian-Ukrainian war and Ukrainian forces captain. In the fall, the vehicle he and his fellow soldiers were traveling for a mission ran over landmines. Ihor lost both legs. Having learned about the new technology of prosthetics, Ihor agreed to become the first patient in Ukraine to have a part of the prosthesis implanted into the bone.

Osseointegration surgery is necessary for people who have lost both limbs because it is difficult and often painful for them to use traditional prostheses.

The patient can take the first steps on implanted prostheses on the second day after the operation and fully walk in another six weeks.

One of the world's leading specialists helped Ukrainian doctors perform this and three more osseointegrating operations. It was Australian orthopedic traumatologist Munjed Al Muderis.

"The advantage of osseointegration is that the patient has a sensitivity with which they can feel the ground and distinguish between surfaces. For example, if you walk on grass, you feel its softness, or if you step on a cable or your wife's toe, you feel it. In this case, they can't say they didn't feel how they stepped on their wife's foot," says professor and orthopedic traumatologist Munjed Al Muderis.

Now Ihor is feeling well. For the first time in five months, he took the first steps. The team of doctors is satisfied with the result.