Thoracoscopic‐assisted lung lobectomy in the dog: report of two cases

Abstract

The benefits and application of thoracoscopy with selective ventilation, as an adjunct to thoracotomy, in facilitating pleural exploration and lung lobectomy in two dogs are presented. Similar thoracoscopic-assisted procedures are commonly used in human patients because there is better exposure and they are technically less demanding than thoracoscopy alone, while causing less postoperative morbidity than conventional thoracotomy. There are no previous reports of thoracoscopic-assisted surgery in the veterinary literature. In the cases described, thoracoscopic-assisted mini-thoracotomy was an effective, minimally-invasive approach for ipsilateral hemithorax exploration and lung lobectomy.

Thoracoscopic-assisted lung lobectomy using hem-o-lok clips in a dog with lung lobe torsion: a case report

“…The introduction of safe linear stapling devices has made thoracoscopic-assisted segmental long resections possible in human medicine (De Letter and Proot 1995). Previous veterinary reports related to thoracoscopic lobectomy have also used automatic stapling equipment as an alternative suturing technique, and the patients undergoing thoracoscopic lobectomy were medium or large breed dogs weighing more than 15 kg (Brissot et al 2003;Lansdowne et al 2005;Laksito et al 2010;Pelaez and Jolliffe 2012). However, the stapling device is difficult to position in a small thorax owing to the size of the cartridges (He et al 1996), as was the case in this Maltese dog.…”

“…This technique is reported to minimise postoperative pain and morbidity without compromising surgical exposure (De Letter and Proot 1995). The first reports of thoracoscopic-assisted lung lobectomy in veterinary literature described thoracoscopic-assisted mini-thoracotomy as an effective, minimally invasive approach for ipsilateral hemithorax exploration and lung lobectomy (Laksito et al 2010). In this study, a thoracoscopic-assisted technique was used, but was modified in consideration of the small size of the dog.…”

“…Among indications, thoracoscopy has successfully been used on lung lobectomies in dogs with tumours (Lansdowne et al 2005;Laksito et al 2010), foreign bodies (Pelaez and Jolliffe 2012) and bullous emphysema (Brissot et al 2003). The introduction of safe linear stapling devices has made thoracoscopic-assisted segmental long resections possible in human medicine (De Letter and Proot 1995).…”

“…In humans, thoracoscopic-assisted procedures have been developed, and these techniques were reported to reduce postoperative pain and morbidity with minimal surgical exposure (De Letter and Proot 1995). Laksito et al (2010) also described the advantages of minimally invasive thoracoscopicassisted lung lobectomy in dogs. The purpose of this report is to describe a thoracoscopic-assisted method using hem-o-lok clips as an alternative suturing technique for lung lobectomy in a small dog.…”

Pulmonary lymph node charting in normal dogs with blue dye and scintigraphic lymphatic mapping

“…It is known that the prognosis of dogs having metastatic spread of primary lung tumors to regional intrathoracic lymph nodes is poorer than in dogs without lymph node metastasis (McNiel et al, 1997;Ogilvie et al, 1989;Paoloni et al, 2006;Polton et al, 2008;Sabattini et al, 2012). Recommendations have been made that the regional intrathoracic lymph nodes are to be surgically biopsied during a lung tumor resection, but without specific guidance (Fossum, 2007;Laksito et al, 2010;McNiel et al, 1997;Paoloni et al, 2006;Rebhun and Culp, 2013). In some studies of canine lung tumors, tracheobronchial lymph nodes were not biopsied if they appeared to be of normal size, though lymph node size is not indicative nor correlative for metastasis (Lansdowne et al, 2005;McNiel et al, 1997;Paoloni et al, 2006).…”