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Quebec has become the first province in Canada to cover under medicare a new surgical procedure for people with lower-limb amputations — giving them a range of motion they could never enjoy with the conventional prosthetic leg.

At present, an amputee must wear a bulky prosthetic leg that rises to the hip and that has a restricted range of motion. Just putting on and taking off the artificial limb is a time-consuming process.

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But under the new procedure, called osseointegration, it can take as little as 10 seconds to fix the prosthetic leg to a titanium rod in the stump. The amputee can cross his or her legs with the artificial leg while sitting, something that would be impossible with the traditional socket prosthesis.