High-speed dental drill may be an acceptable instrument performing canine laminectomy

Abstract

Laminectomy is usually used in spinal cord dysfunction like intervertebral disc herniation. High-speed pneumatic surgical drill is the most common surgical instrument for canine laminectomy operation. However, since the finical problem, the professional instrument has a low installation rate in animal hospitals in developing country. In this study, we hypothesized that dental drill may replace pneumatic surgical drills in dorsal laminectomy and hemilaminectomy, observed if dorsal laminectomy and hemilaminectomy can been successfully operated by dental drill, and compared the canine dorsal laminectomy and hemilaminectomy. Operations were performed in L2-L3 of lumbar vertebra among 12 Chinese rural dogs (6 for dorsal laminectomy and 6 for hemilaminectomy) under experimental condition. After surgeries, close monitoring was carried out within 10 days. The results shown that both dorsal laminectomy and hemilaminectomy were well done and all dogs were well recovered by dental drill. There was no significant difference in the intraoperative and postoperative data between dorsal laminectomy and hemilaminectomy all the time statistically, while the dogs with hemilaminectomy seems to recover better than dorsal laminectomy. Therefore, dental drill may be utilized both in the dorsal laminectomy and hemilaminectomy in emergency without suitable professional surgical instruments.