Team Osseo Stellies went to Charlotte, North Carolina for the Global Collaborative Congress on Osseointegration (GCCO). We learned a lot, made new contacts and shared experiences.
Our key takeaways from Day One of the programme:
- Complications can be reframed in line with what we do in limb lengthening and reconstruction
- Patients develop better bone quality and also have lower metabolic demands after OI
- Osseo-integration for fingers and thumbs can be done quite elegantly with technology from Southern Medical
- Transhumeral OI may be the ideal place to do early OI
- We will implement a standard battery of outcome measures
- Regulatory approval remains a problem
- A structured rehab protocol is important
Our key takeaways from Day Two of the programme:
- Traditional limits for bone anchored limbs are constantly being challenged by patients. A shared decision-making approach is probably best.
- Patient selection remains an important factor. Most people agree that the best candidates are those that struggle with sockets.
- Bone Anchor Related Osteitis can be treated with local debridement and subsequent grafting using antibiotic laden bone allograft products. Diagnosis mainly clinical, augmented by targeted imaging.
- There are exciting advances in the neural-prosthetic interface space.
- In tibial OI patient selection, implant geometry and insertion technique with impaction are important aspects.
The team were inspired and returned home with renewed energy.
