A new surgical procedure at North Carolina State University's College of Veterinary Medicine will give a cat born without hind legs the chance to walk.
Veterinarians, undergraduate students and researchers at the university's College of Engineering have banded together to help a family cat, named George Bailey, born without the lower half of its hind legs, the chance to walk with the help of functional prosthetic feet.
Dr. Denis Marcellin-Little, associate professor of orthopedics, normally focuses on canine hip replacement and treatment of bone deformities in cats and dogs.
Marcellin-Little is attempting to pioneer the use of osseointegration -- a new approach in which the shaft of the artificial limb is inserted and anchored into the bone to provide a stable and permanent prosthesis -- in animals as a means of providing prosthetic limbs.
Osseointegration is rare even in humans, only about 60 people, mainly in Scandinavia, have undergone the procedure.
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
