Surgical treatment of a cerebral brain abscess in a cat

Abstract A nine-year-old male castrated European Shorthair cat was presented with a six-day history of progressive depression and ataxic gait. Neurological examination revealed depression, absent menace in the left eye, absent pupillary light reflex in the right eye, anisocoria, circling to the right, and delayed proprioception in all limbs. Magnetic resonance imaging showed a space-occupying right temporal lobe lesion adjacent to a small defect in the temporal bone suggestive of a meningo-encephalitis with concurrent abscess formation. The site was surgically approached by a rostrotentorial craniectomy. A cerebral abscess was found and debrided. Histopathological examination of the removed tissue demonstrated a subacute to chronic purulent encephalitis with extensive necrosis of brain tissue. Neurological symptoms resolved completely within two weeks and full recovery was observed four weeks after surgery. PMID:21103648[PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE

Use of a bipolar vessel-sealing device in resection of canine insulinoma

OBJECTIVES: To describe partial pancreatectomy using a bipolar vessel-sealing device (BVSD) and compare this novel technique to the conventional suture-fracture (SF) method for canine insulinoma. METHODS: Pre-, intra- and postoperative data of eight dogs with insulinoma, which underwent resection using the BVSD (LigaSure V), were prospectively collected and compared with those of eight randomly selected case-matched patients that underwent resection using the conventional SF technique. RESULTS: Mean surgical time was significantly (P=0·022) shorter in the BVSD (107 ±9 minutes) than in the SF (135 ±22 minutes) group. The BVSD technique was negatively associated with surgical time and duration of the hospitalisation period. Neither technique caused intraoperative complications, such as bleeding, collateral damage to adjacent tissues or problems with sealing or suturing the pancreatic tissue. Three dogs in the SF group and none in the BVSD group developed postoperative clinical signs associated with pancreatitis. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: BVSD is a safe and viable alternative to conventional methods of pancreatectomy for canine insulinoma. It provides the possibility to remove insulinomas in the pancreatic limbs and corpus with relative ease. BVSD pancreatectomy in dogs with insulinoma significantly decreases operative and hospitalisation times and is not associated with more clinical complications than SF pancreatectom