Published in Scientific Works. Series C. Veterinary Medicine, Vol. LXIV, Issue 1
Written by Andreea ISTRATE, Alexandra PETEOACA, Andrei TANASE, Jacqueline MOCANU, Gina GIRDAN, Emilia CIOBOTARU
PURPOSE: The aim of this meta-analysis is to describe the indications, preoperative assessment, surgical technique, postoperative care, clinical results and complications of external fixators used to treat antebrachial and crural fractures in dogs. METHODS: Databases including Pubmed, Elsevier, Science Direct, Cochrane library and other journals were searched for articles published before January 2018 for studies regarding history, clinical applications, complications, advantages and disadvantages of the external fixators technique. With a history of over a hundred years, external skeletal fixators have been used in veterinary medicine as a common technique for stabilizing fractures over the past two decades. The external skeletal fixators use multiple percutaneous pins or wires placed distally and proximally to the fracture site or joint, coupled with an external frame, that can be linear, circular or hybrid and can be placed in various geometrical configurations. This method can be used in various situations besides fracture stabilization, including joint immobilization, limb lengthening and angular, translationaland rotational limb deformities, external skeletal fixators being mechanically versatile. The minimal soft tissue and bone trauma allows for simple staged disassembly in helping promotion of bone healing by using increased loading forces on the fracture site after the beginning of healing. Also, from the reviewed sources we can easily say that some of the most common postoperative complications of these surgical approaches are pin-tract infections, bone lysis, osteomyelitis and implant failure but none of them outweigh the benefits. CONCLUSIONS: External skeletal fixators are a biologically friendly surgical technique, used to minimize disruption of the blood supply to the soft tissue and bone being an advantageous system for management of antebrachial and crural fractures in dogs.
[Read full article] [Citation]
