Feline Stifle Update - Cranial Cruciate Ligament Disease

Recent publications on the feline stifle have mainly focused on the pathogenesis and treatment of cruciate ligament rupture and intra articular mineralisation in the cat so that will be the subject of this short presentation. There are several ex vivo studies designed to test the effectiveness of surgical techniques for cranial cruciate rupture stabilisation and a limited number of publications reporting on the results of surgical stabilisation in this species. A review of these publications will form the basis of this presentation.

Cranial cruciate ligament disease

Aetiopathogenesis The aetiopathogenesis of feline CrCLR has been purported to be traumatic or degenerative. Isolated traumatic cranial cruciate ligament rupture may occur in the cat and should be differentiated from the multiligamentous injury where collateral ligaments, the caudal cruciate and the medial or lateral meniscus can be damaged concurrently and surgical treatment is essential. Suspected degenerative CrCL ruptures in cats have been reported in several studies (7) with affected cats being older and heavier than cats with traumatic ruptures. In a separate study trauma had been witnessed in 3 cats and in 15 cats the cause of the lameness was unknown (15), mean age of cats was 7.4 years and weight 5.9kg, so similar to the previous study, affected cats with suspected degenerate rupture were middle aged and slightly overweight. [...]