NC State’s Revolutionary Ankle Implant Will Allow Siberian Husky to Frolic in the Snow Again

Note to editors: Media are invited to speak with Dr. Harrysson, Dr. Marcellin-Little, Sandy Vandall, Zeus’ owner, and meet Zeus at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, March 30 at the College of Veterinary Medicine. The surgery described below is expected to begin at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, March 31. Photographers may shoot video and stills of the procedure from outside the surgical theatre. Media representatives interested in covering the story need to contact Tracey Peake at 919/515-6142 or Dave Green at 919/513-6662 by noon on Wednesday, March 30.

A continuing tradition of collegial collaboration at North Carolina State University will give a snow-loving Siberian husky the ability to enjoy his favorite season once more.

Zeus is a five-year-old husky whose left ankle joint was damaged as a pup when he was attacked by another dog. The injury limits him to the use of only three legs, and severely curtails the active dog’s mobility. Dr. Denis Marcellin-Little, professor of orthopedic surgery, hopes to remedy this situation by providing Zeus with a custom-made, osseointegrated ankle implant that will completely replace the faulty joint and his front paw.

Marcellin-Little and Dr. Ola Harrysson, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering, are pioneers in the area of osseointegration, a process that fuses a prosthetic limb with an animal’s (or human’s) bones. They began their work on osseointegrated pet prosthetics in 2005 with a cat named George Bailey, who had been born without the lower half of his hind legs. Harrysson designed and built the limb in collaboration with his students and Marcellin-Little, who performed the surgery.

Since then, the collaborators have improved and strengthened the design and streamlined the manufacturing process. Their unique relationship makes NC State the only university in the world that can provide in-house manufacture of these custom-made prosthetics for its veterinary patients. Zeus’s limb surgery will be the third of its kind on a dog performed at NC State.

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