Earlier this month, the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center hosted a continuing education lecture for AMC’s partner veterinarians. This evening event featured Drs. Pamela Schwartz and Daniel Spector of the Denise and Michael Kellen Institute for Surgical Care. They presented the exciting upgrades in surgical capabilities in our new surgery suites. While veterinarians will gawk at the innovative tools and techniques now available to AMC veterinary surgeons, these advances may not be fully appreciated by pet parents who are primarily concerned with their pets’ outcome, not necessarily how it was achieved. I’ll try to translate these improvements for pet parents in today’s blogpost.
Fully Integrated Operating Rooms
Operating room integration facilitates communication and information sharing on an unprecedented level at AMC. Special lights over an operating table are nothing new, but our new lights have cameras in them. These cameras allow those interested in the surgery—Intern and Resident Veterinarians and colleagues around the world—to watch the procedure without crowding the operating room. If a surgeon in the OR wants help, they can connect to a remote colleague using the camera in the surgery light and get input without moving away from the operating table.
The new operating rooms have multiple screens, both fixed and mobile. Each screen can project a different image to facilitate the surgical procedure. One screen might have the view from the minimally invasive equipment camera; another will have the x-ray or CT scan images. The interconnectivity between the rooms allows a surgeon in the operating room to alert the recovery area that a pet will be arriving from the OR shortly.
Little Instruments for Little Patients
In the past, dogs and cats less than eight or nine pounds were too small from some of our minimally invasive surgical equipment. But no more! The new pediatric equipment found in the Surgery Department can be used for very small dogs and cats, and even some exotic pets. This allows even our smallest patients to benefit from minimally invasive surgery.
Expanding List of Minimally Invasive Surgeries
AMC has been performing minimally invasive surgery for years to spay and neuter pets, repair fractures and prevent bloat. But our new facilities enable even more minimally invasive procedures, as Dr. Spector highlighted during his talk. Now our surgeons can remove gall bladders and adrenal glands in both dogs and cats without touching the inside of your pet with their hands. If a tumor needs to be removed, they can use a special tumor retrieval bag to prevent the spread of tumor cells as the tumor is removed through a very small incision. The small incisions from minimally invasive procedures mean shorter healing time and faster healing for your favorite furperson.
3-D Printing Makes Surgery Easier
A primary goal of any surgery is to make anesthesia and recovery times as short as possible. The Surgery Department’s new 3-D printer helps to achieve those goals. In a dog or cat with a malformed leg, a CT scan enables us to print a replica of the leg. Using the replica, the surgeons can plan their surgery down to the exact cuts that need to be made into the bone to correct the malformation – all before the pet is anesthetized. This detailed preoperative planning makes the operation faster, cutting anesthesia time. It also makes recovery faster because the surgeons manipulate the bone and surrounding muscles less.
All these surgical innovations help us to be more successful, precise and make your pet more comfortable after surgery. I would want this for my pet and I am sure you do too!
