After Years of Unrelenting Pain, Osseointegration Gives Long Island Man a New Lease on Life

After years of unrelenting leg pain, an amputation and osseointegration have given Nick Pafitis a new lease on life. He chose to have the surgery after learning that osseointegration enables a prosthetic limb to be attached directly to the remaining bone of someone with an amputation. The bone grows into a metal implant, creating a strong and stable connection.

The procedure provides improved mobility, comfort, and quality of life compared to a standard socket prosthesis, according to Jason Hoellwarth, MD, a highly specialized orthopedic surgeon at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in NYC and at HSS Long Island.   

Nick, who is 45 and lives in Saint James, Long Island, credits Dr. Hoellwarth and the team at the HSS Osseointegration Limb Replacement Center with giving him his life back. A congenital condition that caused a leg bone deformity and a severe ankle injury when he was 11 years old led to two major reconstructive surgeries with lengthy recoveries. As time went by, he started to experience pain that got progressively worse, hindering his ability to walk, work out, and do his job. By age 40, he says it was “hard to express the level of pain.” A motorcycle accident when he was 43 was the final blow that “annihilated” his left ankle.

By the time Nick found out about osseointegration, he says the pain had become almost unbearable, and he was in a “very dark place.” He had seen several specialists who ordered x-rays, CT scans and MRIs. “The doctors all said my condition would require extensive and complex reconstructive surgery with a recovery of up to two years. I didn’t want to go down that path again, and the long-term outcome could not be guaranteed,” Nick explains. 

In his online research, Nick found HSS, the most experienced hospital in the United States for osseointegration to treat people with a transtibial (below the knee) amputation, which is what he would have. After an initial meeting with a highly experienced foot and ankle specialist at HSS who also explained that multiple surgeries and lengthy recoveries would be required, Nick scheduled a second consultation – this time with Dr. Hoellwarth – to see if osseointegration would be right for him. 

“I informed Nick that a single surgery of amputation with osseointegration would provide a rapid return to all-day pain-free mobility. So Nick went forward, had the surgery, and never looked back,” Dr. Hoellwarth says.  

After his recovery and a short period of physical therapy, Nick says he regained the life he had longed for − pain-free and walking without a limp for the first time in 30 years. Some of his journey is posted on Instagram. He works out intensely at the gym and performs a physically demanding job as operations manager of a large plant nursery. And now he aims to help others with limb loss. He told a friend at his gym about osseointegration. His friend, who was struggling with a standard socket prosthesis, had never heard of it. After consulting with Dr. Hoellwarth, he decided to have the surgery.