Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Dog lame after bone graft causes early shoulder growth plate closure
By Palmisano, M P & Schrader, S C·Published in Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association·1999·Department of Small Animal Surgery, United States·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Premature closure of the proximal physis of the humerus in a dog as a result of harvesting a cancellous bone graft.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A 5-month-old male mixed-breed dog was brought in for limping on his right front leg. The vet found pain in his elbow and discovered that the growth plate in his radius had closed too early, causing his elbow to be misaligned. To fix this, the vet performed surgery to lengthen the radius and used bone from the upper arm as a graft. Although the dog initially recovered well, he later developed shoulder instability and pain, likely due to issues from the bone grafting procedure. This case highlights a rare complication from harvesting bone grafts in young dogs.
People also search for: dog limping right front leg · dog elbow pain treatment · shoulder instability in dogs · bone graft complications in dogs
Abstract
A 5-month-old castrated male mixed-breed dog was evaluated because of lameness of the right forelimb. Physical examination revealed pain on manipulation of the right elbow joint, and radiography revealed premature closure of the distal physis of the radius with subluxation of the right elbow joint. Corrective osteotomy of the radius was performed to increase the length of the radius and establish congruity of the elbow joint. Cancellous bone was obtained from the proximal portion of the humerus and used as a graft at the osteotomy site. The dog did well after surgery. Four months after surgery, the dog again was lame on the right forelimb. Physical examination revealed instability of the right shoulder, and manipulation of that area elicited signs of pain. Radiography revealed caudomedial subluxation of the right shoulder as well as deformity of the humeral head and hypoplasia of the greater tubercle. It was presumed that these changes were associated with collection of the cancellous bone graft during the initial surgery, which resulted in premature closure of the proximal physis of the humerus. To our knowledge, this is the first report of premature closure of the proximal physis of the humerus as a result of procurement of a bone graft.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10579042/