Conservative and surgical treatment of thoracolumbar intervertebral disc disease in dogs: 142 cases

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the prognosis for dogs suffering from thoracolumbar intervertebral disc disease. In these retrospective case series 142 cases were included. Only in 21 cases treatment was conservative, on the remaining 121 dogs surgery was performed, i.e. an hemilaminectomy. The neurologic grade was assessed before and 6 weeks after treatment. Dogs clinically graded 3 and 4 pre-surgery, i.e. non-ambulatory dogs with intact deep pain perception, became in 95% (75/79) of the cases ambulatory after surgery. In contrast, only 56% (9/16) of the dogs clinically graded 5 pre-surgery, i.e. with absent deep pain perception, became ambulatory. These results are similar to findings in other studies. Multivariate logistic regression showed that dogs graded 5 pre-surgery (compared to 4), neutered dogs and the French Bulldog had significantly higher odds on unsuccessful outcome, namely 26.3 (P=0.00020), 12.0 (P=0.00998) and 10.6 (P=0.02662) respectively. The outcome of dogs treated conservatively has to be interpreted cautiously, mainly because of the low number of cases.