Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Surgery for cardiac disease in small animals: current techniques.
- Journal:
- The Veterinary clinics of North America. Small animal practice
- Year:
- 2010
- Authors:
- Griffiths, Leigh G
- Affiliation:
- Department of Veterinary Medicine and Epidemiology · United States
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
Surgery to fix heart problems in dogs, whether they are born with them or develop them later, has been shown to be quite successful. Even though these surgeries are not done very often, the success rates are impressively high, thanks to the skilled teams performing them around the world. To improve these success rates even more, it’s important for surgical teams to do these procedures more frequently. However, the main challenges in expanding these heart surgery programs are not the number of cases but rather the need for better facilities and more trained staff.
Abstract
The feasibility of surgical correction for almost all canine congenital or acquired cardiac diseases has been demonstrated. Current surgical success rates are remarkably high considering the infrequency with which such procedures are performed. Such results are a testament to the dedication and skill of the various cardiac surgical teams offering these procedures worldwide. However, experience from the medical field indicates that the only way to increase success rates above those presently achieved will be to dramatically increase the frequency with which cardiac surgical teams perform these procedures. Fortunately, lack of case load does not appear to be the limiting factor to such efforts. Rather, lacks of infrastructure and manpower are the major obstacles for expansion of cardiac surgical programs.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20610014/