Ulnarosteotomy 3:26
This young basset hound has some lameness, and an x-ray reveals that three of the bones in his elbow were not aligned properly. We call this "elbow incongruity" and it is very treatable, especially when the dog is young. Puppies' bones grow about 1-2 mm/day. Older dogs' bones also still grow, but at only about ½ to 1 mm/day. To help this young dog we will perform an orthopedic surgery called an ulnarosteotomy Because he's a basset hound and has very large ears, we can place his catheter there. A catheter allows us access to his vein to rapidly give him the medicine he'll need throughout the surgery and recovery. He has a blood pressure cuff, and all the anesthesia equipment is assembled. The muscle twitching (that you see) is from a tiny electric current used to identify the nerve to block. This is a brachial nerve block in which the local anesthetic is injected directly into the arm. He won't feel his arm at all. This makes the general anesthesia easier on him, since less drugs will need to be administered to him.
The staff wears leaded vests during surgery since they'll be using x-rays in the operating room. We use two rings to hold the bones. : one above and one below the bone we are going to cut. The rings are connected to each other with rods and nuts that we turn slowly to distract, or move, the bone apart as it grows and lengthens.
Several days later, we check on the progress of the distraction before sending the dog home. He'll wear the rings for about 3 weeks, until his elbow bone grows into the proper alignment.
Dr. Ursula Krotscheck
