Vol. 8, Issue 12 (2019)

Author(s):
P Sateesh Kumar, C Latha, T Madhava Rao and G Purushotham

Abstract:
The current study was undertaken to evaluate the clinical efficacy of LC-DCP for stabilization of long bone fractures in dogs. This study was conducted on six dogs presented with fractures to The Department of Veterinary Surgery and Radiology at the College of Veterinary Science, Hyderabad. The six cases of fractures were diagnosed by clinical signs, orthopaedic examination and survey radiography. The symptoms observed in the dogs presented for treatment were pain on manipulation, abnormal angulation and lameness immediately after trauma, swelling, non-weight bearing, dangling of the limb and crepitation at the fracture site. Pre-operative radiographic examination in plain orthogonal views, i.e., craniocaudal and mediolateral radiographs revealed mid-diaphyseal fractures in five dogs and distal diaphyseal fracture in one dog. Pre-operative radiographs also showed the type of fractures as transverse fractures in four dogs and short oblique fractures in two dogs. These fractures were stabilized with 2.7 mm LC-DCP in two dogs and 3.5 mm LC-DCP in four dogs. Good implant stability throughout the treatment period without any complications was achieved in five dogs. In one dog with femur fracture, screw breakage was observed by 30th post-operative day and alignment of fracture line was slightly disturbed. However, intermittent weight bearing was noticed by 45th post-operative day. All the dogs which were diagnosed as femur and tibia fractures showed grade V lameness before surgical treatment. Post-operatively, five dogs progressed to grade I lameness by the end of 30th post-operative day and one dog progressed to grade II lameness by the end of 45th post-operative day. Based on present study, it was concluded that LC-DCP was successful in the treatment of long bone fractures in dogs and offered good recompense and remarkable improvement in the limb function, with good fracture stability till the completion of the bone healing. The application of LC-DCP was found to be effective with features like undercut between the holes had even levels of stiffness along the entire plate, allowing smoother, easier contouring and distributed stress more evenly and also maintaining less plate-bone contact area, thereby reducing cortical ischaemia and preserving viability of the bone fragments.