Anterior Cruciate Ligament injury

 

In people it is often referred to as the ACL. In dogs we call it the Cranial Cruciate Ligament or CrCL.

In people, rupture of the cruciate ligament is almost always caused by trauma. It is a common sporting injury.

Rupture of the cruciate ligament in cats is often the result of significant trauma to the knee (stifle) joint and there is commonly concurrent injury to the menisci (cartilages) and the lateral and medial collateral ligaments.

In dogs we also see traumatic rupture but it is much more common for the cruciate ligament to slowly weaken over a period of time and to finally snap with very little force having been applied to it.

As a result of research and work done by Barclay Slocum we now know that in the dog the slope of the tibial plateau is greater than desired. This causes stress on the cruciate ligament which weakens the ligament over a period of time. Slocum designed a surgical procedure to level the tibial plateau to 6 degrees. Many dogs have tibial slopes of 15 to 30 degrees and some have slopes of up to 45 degrees.

Further work done in Europe has suggested that the patellar ligament also needs to be at 90 degrees to the tibial plateau (in addition to having a slope of about 6 degrees).

Dr. Warwick Bruce, a specialist surgeon working out of Sydney has combined both methods and designed a procedure called Triple Tibial Osteotomy.

A couple of years ago,  David travelled to Brisbane to assist with one of these procedures. The specialist doing the procedure was Dr. Geoff Robins B.Vet.Med, FACVSc. Since then he has performed over thirty of these surgeries at Abbotts Way with excellent results.

For younger large breed dogs we feel that some form (there are at least 4 versions) of tibial plateau levelling is the procedure of choice. For smaller dogs and for older dogs with advanced osteoarthritis we may still advise the extracapsular repair that we having been doing for many years.

The advantages of tibial plateau levelling are a much better functional knee joint and less osteoarthritis develops than after the extracapsular repair.

If you have any questions regarding cruciate ligament surgery in the dog then please contact Dr David Toomey , david@abbottswayvet.co.nz

199 Abbotts Way, Remuera, ph 524 8361