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Cassidy gets a leg up

Vet med professor holding dogIt’s called osseointegration. It won’t make it past your spellchecker. And don’t grab for your Webster’s, it’s not there. All you need to remember is that Cassidy, a cute Germanshepherd mix, is getting a new leg out of the deal and the procedure might be future of human prosthetics.

The surgical process fuses a prosthetic limb with an animal's (or human's) bones. The result is a custom-designed prosthesis that behaves more like a natural limb because the bone and tissue actually grow around the mounting that holds it in place.

For humans that could mean implants that allow the prosthetic limbs to attach without chafing or irritation, and limbs with more natural ranges of motion. There’s some osseointegration for you.