Hundreds of people with limb loss in Lebanon are reportedly waiting for Lebanon prosthetic limbs care as the country’s rehabilitation providers struggle with rising demand, limited public funding and the continuing consequences of war.
A report published by Al-Akhbar describes how Lebanon’s Ministries of Public Health and Social Affairs are no longer able to meet the increasing cost of prosthetic provision. The price of a prosthesis can begin at approximately US$1,280, placing even a comparatively basic device beyond the financial reach of many families.
The situation affects both people recently injured during the conflict and established prosthesis users whose devices require replacement, repair or adjustment.
For Lebanon’s prosthetists, orthotists and rehabilitation professionals, the crisis demonstrates why emergency Lebanon prosthetic limbs provision cannot be treated as a one-time distribution exercise. A person with limb loss requires an ongoing pathway of surgery, wound management, rehabilitation, prosthetic assessment, fitting, gait training, maintenance and replacement.
Growing waiting lists
Rima Farhat, executive director of Center Singer, told Al-Akhbar that funding shortages have placed dozens of injured people on waiting lists while they await access to prosthetic limbs.
The pressure is particularly serious because a prosthesis does not last indefinitely. Farhat estimated that externally worn prosthetic limbs typically require replacement after approximately three to five years, depending on the user, component condition, activity level and physical changes.
Children require more frequent intervention because their residual limbs and bodies are still growing. A child’s socket may need to be replaced within months or annually, while alignment and component selection must be reviewed as height, weight and activity change.
Adults can also experience significant residual-limb volume changes. Weight loss, weight gain, muscle development, tissue changes or medical complications may cause a previously comfortable socket to become loose, painful or unsafe.
The report highlights the experience of Abbas al-Saghir, who sustained war-related limb loss more than 30 years ago. After losing considerable weight, his prosthetic sockets became too large. With the financial support that previously covered his treatment no longer available, he resorted to inserting pieces of fabric into the sockets so that he could continue using them.
This is not a safe long-term substitute for professional socket adjustment or replacement. Poor socket fit can cause unstable gait, increased energy expenditure, falls, skin breakdown, wounds and infection. Compensatory movement may also place additional stress on the spine and the joints of the remaining limb.
Lebanese Red Cross services under pressure
The Lebanese Red Cross provides lower-limb prostheses, orthoses, mobility devices and physical rehabilitation through its rehabilitation centre in Aley.
According to the Al-Akhbar report, the centre supports approximately 450 people each year. Services for people injured during the war are supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross in Lebanon and are provided without charge to eligible users.
However, access depends on clinical and social criteria, available resources and an assessment of each individual case. Lebanese Red Cross Secretary-General Georges Kettaneh stressed that it is not possible for every case to receive automatic and immediate coverage, particularly when hundreds of names are already on waiting lists.
The scale of the wider rehabilitation challenge has been apparent since the major escalation of hostilities in 2024. The World Health Organization reported that more than 17,000 people had been injured in Lebanon between 8 October 2023 and December 2024. WHO estimated that one in four people with life-changing injuries would require long-term rehabilitation and, in some cases, prosthetics or other assistive technologies.
The organisation warned that Lebanon’s available technical capacity could not meet the expected demand for reconstructive surgery, physiotherapy, amputee rehabilitation and prosthetic services.
Children require a lifelong care pathway
Children with limb loss face particularly complex needs because a device provided today will not remain suitable throughout childhood.
The Assistance and Care for War-Wounded and Affected Children programme, or ACWA, was launched by Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health and UNICEF in March 2025. Its services include specialised surgery, rehabilitation, psychosocial support, physiotherapy referrals and disability assistance.
By September 2025, the programme had provided medical treatment, surgery, prosthetics, rehabilitation or related support to 426 children from a group of approximately 1,400 identified as eligible for assistance.
For children who have undergone amputation, funding must therefore cover more than the first prosthesis. Regular review, socket replacement, component changes, physiotherapy and psychosocial support will be required throughout growth.
Funding must include follow-up and replacement
Lebanon’s immediate challenge is to reduce the existing waiting lists without compromising clinical assessment or device quality. Its longer-term challenge is to create a sustainable national system that recognises prosthetic care as a continuing health service.
Funding programmes should account for:
- Initial prosthetic assessment and prescription
- Residual-limb and wound management
- Custom socket design and fabrication
- Appropriate components for the user’s environment and activity
- Physiotherapy and gait training
- Repairs, consumables and adjustments
- Replacement following growth or physical change
- Skin, pain and fall-risk monitoring
- Psychological and social support
- Transport to rehabilitation facilities
Providing a prosthetic limb without the resources to maintain it can leave the user with an unusable or unsafe device after only a short period.
The reported waiting lists are therefore not simply a supply-chain problem. They reflect the absence of sufficiently protected, long-term financing for prosthetic and rehabilitation services.
Lebanon needs coordinated action from its health and social-affairs authorities, international organisations, donors and local rehabilitation providers. Without that commitment, people who have already experienced life-changing injury may continue waiting months or years for the clinical support and prosthetic care required to regain safe mobility.
- Al-Akhbar: Lebanese Victims of Israeli War Wait for Prosthetic Limbs
- Center Singer Medical Center
- Lebanese Red Cross
- ICRC Activities in Lebanon
- WHO: Lebanon’s Growing Trauma and Rehabilitation Needs
- UNICEF: Launch of the ACWA Programme
- UNICEF: Support for War-Wounded Children in Lebanon
- Humanity & Inclusion: People with Disabilities in Lebanon’s Crisis