Abstract:

Problems involving the patella are frequent causes of hind leg lameness in small animals. Patella luxation is the most common problem and 75% occurring medially. Medial luxation most prevalent in small dogs and cats, lateral luxation occurs most frequently in larger breed dogs. This disorder can be either congenital or traumatic. Most patient with patellar luxation have associated musculoskeletal abnormalities. Most affected animals have an intermittent weight-bearing lameness. Diagnosis is primarily based on palpation. Patient with grade I luxation generally show no lameness. Patient with grade II luxation usually have some form of gait disturbance. Chronic grade II patella luxation cause degenerative changes on the joint. Patient with grade III luxation patella is luxated most of time. Lameness varies from an occasional skip to weight-bearing lameness. Patient with grade IV luxation patella is dislocated and not be reduced without surgical intervention. Many operative techniques are used for treatment of patella luxations, such as; tuberal tuberositiy transpositions, medial restraint release, patellar groove deepening, femoral osteotomy-ostectomy, capsuloraphy. Generally, a combination of these techniques is required to achieve intraoperative stability of patella. Cranial or caudal cruciate ligament insufficiency is a leading cause of lameness in the dog. Cranial cruciate ligament rupture most common seen in the dog and caudal cruciate ligament rupture mostly in cats. In untreated cases, degeneration of stifle joints would start in a few weeks which may turn into serious degeneration cases like fibrosis, meniscal lesions, periarticular osteophytosis and articular lesions in a few months. Caudal cruciate ligament rupture is rarely seen and mostly occurs in cats. There are various surgical approaches for treatment of cranial cruciate ligament ruptures in dogs. Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy (TPLO) and the Tibial Tuberosity Advancement (TTA) most common used techniques for cranial cruciate ligament rupture treatment.

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