Comparison of functional outcome and patient satisfaction between patients with socket prosthesis and patients treated with transcutaneous osseointegrated prosthetic systems (TOPS) after transfemoral amputation.

Purpose: The aim of this retrospective analysis was to investigate and evaluate differences in functional outcome and satisfaction of patients treated with a TOPS and patients using socket prosthesis after transfemoral amputation.

Methods: This retrospective comprehensive analysis included patients from a single hospital, and was conducted between February 2017 and December 2018. Overall n = 139 patients with prosthesis were included and divided into two comparable groups (socket- and TOPS group). Incomplete data sets were excluded. This led to n = 36 participants for the socket- and n = 33 for the TOPS group. Functional outcome and satisfaction were evaluated by Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs). The used PROMs were: Questionnaire for Persons with a Transfemoral Amputation (Q-TFA), EQ5D-5L, Satisfaction with Prosthesis Questionnaire (SAT-PRO), Prosthesis Mobility Questionnaire (PMQ 2.0) and Functional Independence Measure (FIM).

Results: Significant results in favor of TOPS patients were identified for the EQ-5D 5L (p = 0.004), Q-TFA (p = 0.000), SAT-PRO (p = 0.000) and PMQ 2.0 (p = 0.000). For FIM, no statistical significance was found (p = 0.318).

Conclusion: In this study, transfemoral amputees treated with an osseointegrated prosthetic attachment (TOPS) showed significantly higher scores for mobility and satisfaction. This demonstrates the high potential of TOPS in the prosthetic treatment of patients with transfemoral amputation with regard to their functional abilities in daily life.