Ovariohysterectomy in the Horse

Ovariohysterectomy in the horse is a rare and very challenging surgical procedure. Indications for a complete or partial ovariohysterectomy are chronic endometritis non-responsive to conservative treatment, pyometra, and neoplasia like leiomyoma or to a smaller degree other uterine tumors. Further indications are lacerations or rupture of the uterus as well as congenital malformations with chronic recurrent fluid accumulation.

Several surgical techniques for ovariohysterectomy have been described in literature; the conventional open ovariohysterectomy (Slone 1988, Bartmann et al. 2003, Rötting et al. 2003), the laparoscopic ovariohysterectomy (Ragle 2012), the hand-assisted laparoscopic ovariohysterectomy (Delling et al. 2004), all in dorsal recumbency under general anesthesia and finally the laparoscopic-assisted ovariohysterectomy as a biphasic surgical procedure (Scharner et al. 2009, Woodford & Payne 2009, Röcken 2013).

Due to the relative inaccessibility of the reproductive tract and the resulting remarkable surgical trauma, the increased morbidity and convalescence of the conventional surgical procedures, the minimal-invasive techniques mentioned above are favored nowadays with preference to the laparoscopic-assisted method.

The endoscopic-assisted procedure for complete or partial ovariohysterectomy is accomplished as a two-step surgical intervention.  [...]