Surgical Treatment of Femoris Distal Fractures in Young Cats Using Two Hypodermic Needles
World Small Animal Veterinary Association World Congress Proceedings, 2006
A. Lavrenčič, J. Koren, I. Princes
Vet. Ambulance Vipava, Vipava, Slovenia

The distal fractures of femoris frequently happen to young animals. Due to spacing between the fragments, a surgical treatment is necessary. In our work, we describe a simple technique of fixation supracondilar fractures of femoris using two hypodermic needles. The easiest access to the distal side of the femoris is from the lateral side, the orientation points being femur, patella in tuberositas tibiae. After anatomical reposition we did osteosynthesis using two hypodermic needles with the perimeter 1,2mm X 38mm. The hypodermic needles were inserted in way from the trochanter area by manually pushing to the plastic part of the needle in the direction of the diaphfisis area. We pushed one needle from the lateral and the other from the medial side, thus they intersected. Then we pinched off the plastic part and the rest of the needle we pushed in the periost. After that we closed the wound in the routine manner. We let the bandages on all the cats for three weeks after the treatment. Using this approach we performed osteosynthesis to eight cats of the age between five and seven months. The cats did not use the operated leg for two weeks after the operation, they started to use the leg in a normal way between the sixth and the eight week after the treatment, when the pain in the handicapped joint diminished. Only in one case, the needle could be felt through the skin in the area of the knee joint; we removed this needle from the medial side of the knee. In all other cases we did not remove the needles. Due to its simplicity, speed, and success of the treatment, we propose to use this technique to treat the supracondilar fractures of femoris in young cats until the age of seven moths. We propose not to use this technique during the treatment of older cats, since the bone tissue is too hard, which makes the manual fixation of the needles in the broken fragments too difficult.

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A. Lavrencic
Vet. ambulance Vipava
Vipava, Slovenia


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