Preferences for Attachment Devices for Individuals with Lower-Limb Loss: A Discrete-Choice Study to Inform Regulatory Decisions

Importance shown to avoid the actual infection risk of osseointegration can be offset by the individual's importance for the benefits of osseointegration to avoid pain and socket problems and to have rapid device snap on.Individuals also showed they are willing to trade the actual osseointegration device failure rate risks for the likely benefits of osseointegration.Individuals strongly preferred avoiding time without the use of a prosthetic for the time it takes to undergo and recover from the osseointegration procedure, informing the debate for favoring a faster procedure and recovery time if it is safe. However, these preferences were still in the tradeoff range for the benefits of osseointegration.Individuals showed the strongest importance for a potential benefit of osseointegration to reduce the presence of daily pain, which is a likely benefit of the osseointegration procedure, especially when accompanied by targeted muscle reinnervation.We showed considerable heterogeneity across patient preferences, with one group showing a strong importance for avoiding risks but also importance for some benefits of osseointegration and a larger group who showed a more moderate importance across both risks and benefits.