1. Foramen magnum decompression with cranioplasty for treatment of caudal occipital malformation syndrome in dogs.
- Author
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Dewey CW, Marino DJ, Bailey KS, Loughin CA, Barone G, Bolognese P, Milhorat TH, and Poppe DJ
- Subjects
- Animals, Arnold-Chiari Malformation surgery, Arnold-Chiari Malformation veterinary, Bone Screws veterinary, Breeding, Decompression, Surgical methods, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Magnetic Resonance Imaging methods, Magnetic Resonance Imaging veterinary, Male, Postoperative Complications epidemiology, Postoperative Complications veterinary, Prospective Studies, Quality of Life, Treatment Outcome, Decompression, Surgical veterinary, Dogs abnormalities, Dogs surgery, Foramen Magnum surgery, Occipital Bone abnormalities, Occipital Bone surgery
- Abstract
Objectives: To describe a cranioplasty procedure used in conjunction with foramen magnum decompression (FMD) for the treatment of canine caudal occipital malformation syndrome (COMS), and to evaluate the clinical outcome., Study Design: Prospective clinical study., Animals: Dogs (n=21) with COMS diagnosed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)., Methods: After FMD, titanium screws were placed around the perimeter of the foramen magnum defect and a skull plate fashioned from titanium mesh and polymethylmethacrylate was attached to the back of the skull, using the titanium screws as anchor posts. Follow-up was obtained by direct examination by the authors, telephone interviews with owners and referring veterinarians, and a questionnaire sent to owners of surviving dogs designed to assign objective measures of response to surgical intervention. Surgical success was defined as improvement in >or=1 aspects of clinical dysfunction (e.g. scratching, pain) postoperatively. Owner-assigned pre- and postoperative quality-of-life (QOL) scores (1-5) for surviving dogs were compared using a Wilcoxon's signed rank test for paired data (P
- Published
- 2007
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