Monday: 8:30am - 5:30pm
Minimally Invasive Joint Surgery
We practice arthroscopy of the knee, elbow, shoulder and hip joints decreasing the need for more invasive joint surgery techniques. Cruciate ligament and meniscal injuries can be treated by the use of a small arthroscope instead of large, open joint incisions. These minimal-invasive surgical techniques allow for less soft tissue trauma, quicker return to function and less post-operative discomfort and complications for our four-legged friends.
Historically, if animals were diagnosed with joint problems requiring surgery, these animals would require open joint surgery to correct the condition.
Now, advances in surgery have allowed us to use very small scopes and instruments not only to diagnose problems, but treat them as well. The post-operative period has greatly improved for these animals. They experience less discomfort, heal faster, and have less complications such as infection. The joints we are going into the most are the stifle or knee and elbows and shoulder joints. The common conditions that are treated in these joints are tearing of the cruciate ligament or meniscus in the knee, OCD (osteochondrosis dissecans) or cartilage flap problems and tendon problems in the shoulder, and small bone fragments or fractures of the elbow. Arthroscopy is an excellent procedure for diagnosis of elusive problems in these joints also. The equipment required for these procedures is high tech and costly but some of which can fortunately be shared with other procedures such as laparoscopy and endoscopy.