Técnicas reconstrutivas em cirurgia oncológica de canídeos e felídeos

Dissertação de Mestrado Integrado em Medicina VeterináriaActualmente, a doença oncológica é uma das principais causas de morte em canídeos e felídeos. A cirurgia é o método mais antigo e, ainda hoje, de maior sucesso no tratamento de neoplasias, podendo também ser usada como método preventivo, diagnóstico ou paliativo. A necessidade de realizar exéreses tumorais com margens suficientemente amplas para evitar a permanência de doença residual, frequentemente origina defeitos de grandes dimensões cujo encerramento constitui um desafio para o cirurgião. Nas últimas décadas foram desenvolvidas várias técnicas reconstrutivas, o que permitiu assegurar a integridade funcional e cosmética dos doentes oncológicos submetidos a cirurgia ablativa, melhorando assim a sua eficácia. O presente trabalho foi elaborado na sequência de um estágio realizado no Centro de Medicina Veterinária Anjos de Assis – Barreiro (Portugal), entre Setembro de 2008 e Março de 2009, durante o qual foram acompanhados vários casos de medicina interna e cirurgia de animais de companhia. Durante este período foram estudados todos os doentes oncológicos submetidos a cirurgia ablativa (n = 37), com o objectivo de caracterizar pormenorizadamente esta amostra populacional com especial relevância para o tema tratado. Neste grupo, 16% dos doentes (n = 6) foram submetidos a técnicas reconstrutivas após a exérese do tumor. Neste trabalho é apresentada uma revisão das técnicas de Cirurgia Plástica e Reconstrutiva com utilidade em Cirurgia Oncológica. Adicionalmente, é proposto um protocolo experimental para o desenvolvimento de uma nova técnica de enxerto cutâneo para reconstrução facial em felídeos, incluindo a avaliação da sua eficácia clínica comparativamente a uma técnica alternativa já existente.ABSTRACT - RECONSTRUCTIVE TECHNIQUES IN SURGICAL ONCOLOGY IN DOGS AND CATS - Cancer is one of the main causes of death in dogs and cats, nowadays. Surgery is the oldest and still the most successful method of treatment in oncology and can also be used as a method of prevention, diagnosis or palliation. The need for wide resection margins as a way of avoiding leaving residual disease often originates extensive defects, whose closure constitutes a challenge for surgeons. Many reconstructive techniques have been developed in the last decades assuring functional and cosmetic integrity for patients submitted to ablative surgery, thus improving its effectiveness. This work was made following an internship that took place in Centro de Medicina Veterinária Anjos de Assis – Barreiro (Portugal) between September 2008 and March 2009, with several cases of small animal surgery and internal medicine being followed. During this period, all oncological patients submitted to ablative surgery (n = 37) were studied in order to obtain detailed information with special relevance to this subject. In this group, 16% of the patients (n = 6) were submitted to reconstructive techniques after tumor resection. This work presents a review of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery techniques that can be useful in Surgical Oncology. In addition, it is proposed an experimental protocol for the development of a new cutaneous flap technique for facial reconstruction in the cat, including its clinical evaluation in comparison to an already existing alternative technique

No evidence for a bioenergetic advantage from forced swimming in rainbow trout under a restrictive feeding regime

Sustained swimming at moderate speeds is considered beneficial in terms of the productive performance of salmonids, but the causative mechanisms have yet to be unequivocally established. In the present study, the effects of moderate exercise on the bioenergetics of rainbow trout were assessed during a 15 week growth experiment, in which fish were reared at three different current speeds: 1 BL s(-1), 0.5 BL s(-1) and still water (approximate to 0 BL s(-1)). Randomly selected groups of 100 fish were distributed among twelve 600 L tanks and maintained on a restricted diet regime. Specific growth rate (SGR) and feed conversion ratio (FCR) were calculated from weight and length measurements every 3 weeks. Routine metabolic rate (RMR) was measured every hour as rate of oxygen consumption in the tanks, and was positively correlated with swimming speed. Total ammonia nitrogen (TAN) excretion rates showed a tendency to decrease with increasing swimming speeds, yet neither they nor the resulting nitrogen quotients (NQ) indicated that swimming significantly reduced the fraction of dietary protein used to fuel metabolism. Energetic budgets revealed a positive correlation between energy expenditure and the current speed at which fish were reared, fish that were forced to swim and were fed restrictively consequentially had poorer growth and feed utilization. The results show that for rainbow trout, water current can negatively affect growth despite promoting minor positive changes in substrate utilization. We hypothesize that this may be the result of either a limited dietary energy supply from diet restriction being insufficient for both covering the extra costs of swimming and supporting enhanced growth