As our clients know we like to keep at the forefront of veterinary medicine and surgery and we invested early on in key-hole surgical equipment. We perform keyhole procedures frequently and are one of the few practices in the UK to do so.
Keyhole procedures involve the use of a laparoscope (camera) to visualise the internal organs and an electrocautery device seals the blood vessels and dissects the attachments. 2 small (<5mm) incisons are made instead of opening up sevral centimetre incisons. Dogs experience less pain with these procedures compared to open surgery and have a shorter post operative recovery of 1 day restricted exercise compared to 7.
Keyhole Procedures: laprascopic ovariectomy, Cryptorchid castrations, organ biopsies, gastropexies
If you want to know whether keyhole surgery would be the kinder choice for your dog please phone the surgery where one of our team will be happy to discuss the procedure with you.
Case Study: Teddy and his abdominal testicle
Teddy came in for a check-up when he was 6 months old to discuss neutering him. On examination I saw that he only had one visible testicle. This condition is called Cryptorchidism, the other testicle fails to descend and is situated either in the groin or within the abdomen. The missing testicle needs to be found and removed because if its left it can turn cancerous.
Surgery: Teddy also had a small hernia at his belly button so I used this to my advantage as the entry port for the laprascope. We gently inflated his abdomen with carbon dioxide and rolled him on his side to help locate the abdominal testicle. Once located I made a second small incision through which I introduced some forceps, grabbed the testicle and removed it from his abdomen. Once outside his abdomen I could easily tie off the blood vessels and seperate it from his body.
Advantages: before we had keyhole equipment this surgery would have involved making a large abdominal incision and using my hands I would have to look for the testicle. Keyhole is a much quicker, safer and less painful way of perfroming this procedure.
