The aim of our study was to identify potential critical levels of implantation of an osseointegrated prosthesis for above-knee amputees. The implant used was the OPRA system. It was inserted in the femur at four different amputation heights, characterized by their residual limb ratios (0.299, 0.44, 0.58 and 0.73). The stress and strain distribution was evaluated in the bone-implant system during walking, considering a body mass of 100 kg. Considerably high stimulus (11,489 με) in the tissue near the tip was found at the highest implantation level. All models presented small non-physiologic stress values in the tissue around the implant. The results revealed that the implantation level has a decisive effect on bone-implant performance. Mainly, the analysis indicates adverse biomechanical conditions for implantations in very short residual limbs.
Keywords: Critical implantation level; OPRA system; above-knee amputees; finite element analysis; osseointegrated prosthesis; residual limb length.