Veterinary Resident University of California-Davis Davis , California
To report outcomes of thoracoscopic (TL) and thoracoscopic-assisted (TAL) surgery for treatment of pulmonary consolidation (PC) in dogs. A retrospective review of the medical records of 12 dogs that underwent TL or TAL for PC at three veterinary institutions between 2011 and 2020 was performed. History, diagnostics, days in hospital, anesthetic and procedure times, intraoperative/postoperative complications, conversion rates, duration of indwelling thoracic drain, and long-term outcomes were recorded. Thoracoscopic or thoracoscopic-assisted lung lobectomy was performed for consolidation of the following lung lobes: right caudal (4), right middle (3), right cranial (3), left cranial (2), and accessory (1). Nine patients underwent a TL approach and the remaining 3 underwent TAL. In those that underwent TL, conversion to an intercostal thoracotomy was performed in 4 of 9 dogs. Conversion was performed due to adhesions (3) and poor access (1). Mean duration of hospital stay was 4 days (range, 1-6 days). Complications occurred post-operatively in 7 dogs and included self-limiting hemorrhage (3), self-resolving air leak (2), incisional dehiscence (1), and severe dyspnea leading to euthanasia (1). For the 11 dogs that survived the perioperative period there was no evidence of recurrence, median follow-up was 19 months (range 5-120 months). TL or TAL can reasonably be utilized as a surgical approach for lung lobectomy in select dogs with PC. Sample size may impact the ability to draw conclusions about short- and long-term outcomes. Conversion rates were higher than those historically reported for dogs undergoing thoracoscopic lung lobectomy for primary lung tumors.
