Innovation
The Stellenbosch Osseointegration Centre has launched Africa’s first dedicated centre for advanced osseointegration limb replacement surgery, marking a major step forward in reconstructive orthopaedics.
The Stellenbosch Osseointegration Centre, affectionately known as Team Osseo Stellies, is a new dedicated multidisciplinary centre offering state-of-the-art osseointegration limb replacement surgery to amputees. The pioneering unit provides the only service of its kind in South Africa and on the African continent, marking a milestone in advanced reconstructive orthopaedic care.
Dr Franz Birkholtz, an orthopaedic limb reconstruction specialist based at Mediclinic Winelands Orthopaedic Hospital and the Institute of Orthopaedics and Rheumatology (IOR) in Stellenbosch, leads Team Osseo Stellies. The centre is focused on restoring mobility, function, and quality of life to amputees through cutting-edge bone-anchored prosthetic solutions.
Advanced technology
At the core of the programme is the CRATOS implant, a custom-designed, single-unit osseointegration stem. This implant allows for direct skeletal attachment of the prosthesis and provides patients with osseoperception (the ability to perceive load, position, and movement through the bone-anchored implant) resulting in more natural, controlled, and confident movement.
To date, the team has successfully completed its first eight osseointegration surgeries, including:
- Two transtibial osseointegration procedures
- Six transfemoral osseointegration procedures.
Developed with Dutch engineers and surgeons, the procedures were mentored by Dr Oscar van Waes from Rotterdam to ensure they met international best-practice and safety standards
Early outcomes have been very encouraging. The first patients are already walking independently, cycling, and returning to active lifestyles. One patient, after losing a limb in the South African Border War, walked for the first time in 40 years after the life-changing procedure.
Benefits of osseointegration for patients
Osseointegration, also referred to as bone-anchored prosthetic reconstruction, eliminates the need for a traditional socket interface. By anchoring the prosthesis directly to the skeleton, patients experience:
- Improved comfort and mobility
- Enhanced control and functional performance
- Reduction in socket-related skin problems and pain
- Restoration of a more intuitive connection between body and prosthesis.
Multidisciplinary care
Team Osseo Stellies operates as a fully integrated multidisciplinary service. Patients benefit from coordinated care involving:
- Stellenbosch Academy of Sports physiotherapy services
- Clinical psychology support
- Dietetic input
- Occupational therapy
- Specialised nursing care
- Expert orthotics and prosthetics providers.
This approach supports good rehabilitation, safe recovery, and lasting function.
Collaboration with key partners
Following an initial osseointegration case performed several years ago at the hospital by Professor Nando Ferreira, Team Osseo Stellies now delivers this service at scale.
Team Osseo Stellies works with Mediclinic Winelands Orthopaedic Hospital, the Institute of Orthopaedics and Rheumatology, the Stellenbosch Academy of Sports and the Rotterdam Osseointegration Centre. Led by Dr Birkholtz, the team is also looking at how to bring this technology into the public sector.
“This is an exciting step forward for amputee care in South Africa and Africa as a whole,” says Dr Birkholtz. “Osseointegration allows us to fundamentally change how patients interact with their prostheses and, ultimately, how they live their lives.”
Further publications on the topic
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