Is There a Role for Arthroscopy in Performance/Working Dogs?

Sports and working dogs are athletes with high demands. Canine sports medicine aims for preventing re-injury while moving the patient back to a state of muscular ability, endurance, coordination, balance, and flexibility that allows them to train and compete as well as or perhaps better than they did before. Any sort of dysfunction is often recognized at an early stage as the canine athlete’s owner has a highly educated view to detect any gait abnormalities. Therefore, changes in the musculoskeletal system are subtle, often located in the soft tissue and challenging to detect. Diagnostic imaging is an important component of evaluating the canine athlete for injuries to the musculoskeletal system. Intraarticular lesions can be detected by non-invasive imaging modalities like MRI, ultrasound, and rarely by arthrogram, x-ray, ct or by invasive procedures like arthrotomy or arthroscopy. The latter one is minimally invasive and allows direct visualization, testing of function by moving a joint or direct palpation of defined anatomical structures. Judging the inflammatory status and the integrity or elongation of intraarticular ligaments or tendons is one of the major indications in sporting dogs.

Arthrotomy has been many surgeons’ first choice because of shorter learning curve than arthroscopy. In addition, dogs and cats have small joints that may not allow having the same arthroscopic working space as with an arthrotomy. However, with the evolution of instrumentation and techniques, there has been a shift from open to arthroscopic procedures with satisfactory outcomes. Decreased postoperative pain, faster recovery and better diagnostic accuracy of arthroscopy has led many surgeons to prefer an arthroscopic approach for several procedures such as treatment of elbow dysplasia, partial tear of the cranial cruciate ligament, meniscal injury, should instability among others.  [...]