Vet Becomes First In Region To Offer Groundbreaking Keyhole Surgery Technology

A County Durham veterinary practice has positioned itself at the sharp end of veterinary technology after becoming the first vets in the North East to offer keyhole surgery for a variety of procedures including spays, tumour detection and biopsies. A dog about to undergo a keyhole spay at the Prince Bishop Veterinary Hospital The Prince Bishop Veterinary Hospital in Leadgate near Consett has joined a select list of one of only 27 veterinary practices in the UK to provide the technology. The practice has added keyhole surgery to its services after its principal vet Jacqui Molyneux, one of only a small number of vets in the UK to hold the RCVS Certificate in Small Animal Surgery, underwent advanced training in the technique at the prestigious North American Veterinary Conference. Although keyhole ­ or laparoscopic ­ surgery is routine in humans, the standard procedure in animals is still open abdominal surgery which can leave the patient suffering large, painful wounds, post-operative pain, slower recovery and a higher risk of post-operative complications and infections. Jacqui explained: "Keyhole surgery is still a new procedure in veterinary medicine and one that the vast majority of vets in the UK are yet to offer due to the additional high investment in time and other resources required for training." "We believe however that keyhole surgery represents a major benefit to our patients and clients as it is far less invasive, painful, and has much faster recovery times. Although dogs traditionally recover much faster after surgery than humans, we have noticed an even faster recovery time after keyhole surgery - in fact our clients say they can't believe anything has been done!" "We are finding that once the benefits have been explained to clients they are opting for the new keyhole neutering instead of the standard one. The technology will also be extremely useful in helping to diagnose abdominal tumours in pets and especially in performing usually invasive liver biopsies, resulting in much less pain and much faster recovery times for the animal." Jacqui added: "Like many other disciplines, laparoscopic surgical techniques are rather different from conventional surgery and the technical skills entail considerable time and effort to develop, however, once mastered, vets are seeing fewer complications than we did in the past using traditional open surgical techniques." For more information about keyhole surgery, please contact the Prince Bishop Veterinary Hospital on 01207 590 340.

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