Description
My talk will aim to provide practitioners with an update on the plethora of techniques utilised to repair cruciate ruptures in dogs. It will cover TPLO, TTO, TTA as well as techniques such as Tightrope or Isometric Sutures and discuss the advantages they may have over the traditional approaches such as Lateral Sutures and Over the Top procedures. It will also discuss the reasons surgeons may choose particular techniques and patient selection, as well as the option for a conservative approach in smaller as well as larger dogs. Evidence that these techniques are superior will be shown and provide practitioners with a reasonable base to identify patients, get the right x-rays and provide guidance to owners. There will also be some information about guiding owners about exercise after surgery. After qualifying from Glasgow in 1995, I dipped a toe in mixed practice before heading into a purely small animal career. I gained valuable surgical experience with the PDSA in the Midlands, North east and then London in addition to periods at hospitals in Essex and London. Moving to a hospital practice in the Northwest in 2004, I completed the Royal College CertSAS in 2005 before becoming a partner at Wright & Morten in Macclesfield, Cheshire seeing first opinion and occasional referral cases. I remained there until March 2014 when I set up a peripatetic surgical service, surgivet.co.uk. in addition to working with the Bristol based Ratavet Surgery. I became a RCVS Advanced Practitioner in Small Animal Surgery earlier this year.