Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Removing severe heartworms from dogs using flexible forceps
By Lee, Seung-Gon et al.·Published in Journal of veterinary science·2008·Institute of Veterinary Medicine, South Korea·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Percutaneous heartworm removal from dogs with severe heart worm (Dirofilaria immitis) infestation.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 5-year-old mixed-breed dog was diagnosed with severe heartworm disease, which can lead to serious health issues like heart failure. Traditional treatments often cause complications, but a new method using flexible tools allowed veterinarians to safely remove the heartworms directly from the dog's heart. This innovative approach was successfully used on four dogs, and all of them showed positive recovery without any complications afterward.
People also search for: dog heartworm treatment · heartworm removal surgery for dogs · severe heartworm disease in dogs
Abstract
Canine heart worm disease is often life-threatening due to its various complications, including right side heart failure, caval syndrome and pulmonary eosinophilic granulomatosis. Several preventive medications and melarsomine have been developed and they are very effective to control heartworm infestation. However, in a case of severe infestation, melarsomine therapy often results in an unfavorable outcome because of the severe immune reaction caused by rapid killing of the adult worm. Surgical removal and an interventional method using flexible alligator forceps have been well described in the literature. Despite the usefulness of mechanical removal using flexible alligator forceps, the methodology still needs to be upgraded for increasing the applicability for treating dogs with severe infestation. We describe herein a newly developed percutaneous removal method for heartworms and this was successfully applied to 4 dogs with severe heartworm infestation. The follow-up studies also showed favorable outcomes with no complications.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18487942/