Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dog with wobbly back legs fixed by new titanium spine surgery
By Kimura, Shintaro et al.·Published in Frontiers in veterinary science·2021·The United Graduate School of Veterinary Sciences, Japan·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Case Report: Spinal Stabilization Surgery Using a Novel Custom-Made Titanium Fixation System for the Spinal Instability Caused by Vertebral Malformation in a Dog.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 2-year-old Maltese was brought in because he had a wobbly walk in his back legs. After imaging tests, the vet found that he had a birth defect in his spine that was causing pressure on his spinal cord. To fix this, the vet performed surgery to remove part of the affected vertebrae and used special custom-made titanium implants to stabilize the area. Two weeks after the surgery, the dog was walking normally again. Although the implants showed some slight loosening nearly a year later, the dog continued to do well without any further issues.
People also search for: dog wobbly gait treatment · Maltese spinal surgery · custom titanium implants for dogs
Abstract
A 2-year-old Maltese was presented with wobbly gait of the pelvic limbs. Based on imaging examinations, a diagnosis of congenital malformation at T5-T8 and severe kyphosis causing spinal cord compression at T6-T7 was made. Dorsal laminectomy and stabilization of T6 and T7 vertebrae were performed. As the size of the vertebrae was small and they were severely deformed, novel custom-made titanium implants were used for spinal stabilization. Clinical signs were resolved 2 weeks after surgery. Although radiographic examination 373 days after surgery showed slight loosening of implants, post-operative course remained uneventful. This report describes the use of novel custom-made titanium implants for spinal fixation surgery in a dog.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34859088/