CARPAL ARTHRODESIS WITH EXTERNAL SKELETAL FIXATION IN DOG: 12 CASES

In small animals, arthrodesis is a salvage procedures commonly used to treat muscular, orthopedic and neurologic diseases of carpal joints unresponsive to conventional surgical and medical management. Previously reported techniques include internal fixation using plates applied to either the dorsal, medial, or palmar aspect of the carpus, cross pinning, and linear or circular external skeletal fixation (ESF). The aim of this study was to compare the clinical outcome of carpal arthrodesis obtained by the use of linear ESF and acrylic ESF. A retrospective study was made on the records of the years 2010-2013. Inclusion criteria for pancarpal or radio-carpal arthrodesis were pain and lameness attributable to carpal joints diseases nonresponsive to previous surgical or nonsurgical management, and severe neurological deficiency. Surgical procedure consisted in carpal joints fusion through debridement of cartilage from the articular surfaces, perforation of the subchondral bone plate, cancellous bone transplantation and external skeletal fixation (traditional or acrylic implants). Age, bred, body weight, type of implant and time for ESF removal and were recorded for each dog and groups were compared with Man-Whitney U-test (P