Lateral capsular fascial imbrication of the stifle joint with medial meniscectomy in dogs with rupture of the cranial cruciate ligament.

Abstract

CCL injury is the most common orthopedic injury in dogs. No surgical treatment has been proven to be superior yet. The aim of this study is to find variables which influence the functional and clinical outcome of an capsular stabilization technique called the lateral capsular fascial imbrication. The imbrication in this study is always performed with a complete removal of the medial meniscus. Clinical and functional outcome is evaluated with an owner assessed questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of the internationally accepted Helsinki chronic pain index (HCPI) survey with added questions about the dogs physical abilities before and after the surgery, the healing of the wound, use of NSAIDs and complications. 85 questionnaires from 79 owners were useful for evaluation. 67,1% (n=55)of the dogs had a complete recovery of the limb (owners opinion), 29,3% (n=24) improved a lot and 3,7% (n=3) moderately improved. No dog didn’t improve or worsened. 80 of the 85 dogs had a complete HCPI. 15% (n=12) of the dogs has no chronic pain according to the HCPI, 52,5% (n=42) has an undefined pain score, the so called grey zone, and 32.5% (n=26) has chronic pain. Age with a correlation of 0.398 and bodyweight with a correlation of 0.100 were found to influence the HCPI. Lateral capsular fascial imbrication with medial meniscectomy has a low risk on major complications and most dogs are lameness free in the owners opinion. 32.5% has a chronic pain index score possibly resulting from degenerative joint disease of the stifle joint. Further research is needed to objectively evaluate the clinical outcome of this technique and which variables influence this outcome.