The retrospective study, conducted by Ukrainian surgeons and published in International Orthopaedics, covered 49 veterans treated in 2023 and 2024, most with above-knee or above-elbow amputations. Of these, 45 patients (47 implants) completed both surgical stages. Implant survival was 97.9% at one year and 93.2% at a median follow-up of 18.7 months. No mechanical complications were reported, while 18% of patients had infections in the first year after the second stage.

“Treating war veterans often involves special and demanding conditions,” says Rickard Brånemark, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer at Integrum.

Integrum has been active in Ukraine since 2023, where OPRA has been used in more than 100 treatments. In September, Ukraine’s government approved a state-funded pilot programme for bone-anchored prostheses, starting with 25 patients this year.

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“The technology exists. Ukraine needs it”: Inside a Swedish surgeon’s mission to Ukraine

Rickard Brånemark, Chief Medical and Scientific Officer at Integrum, has traveled to Ukraine eight times to train surgeons in an advanced Swedish implant technology for amputees. The need, he writes, is difficult to overstate – and the question now is how quickly the technology can be scaled up to meet it.