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Keyhole surgery gives reindeer new lease of life
CUTTING-edge Yorkshire know-how has saved Christmas for a reindeer at Edinburgh Zoo believed to be the first in the world to receive keyhole surgery to cure a life-threatening ailment.
Eskimo the reindeer had a birth defect that was leading to abnormal growth corrected using specialist surgical instruments donated by Leeds-based Surgical Innovations.
Eskimo had been so cowed by ill health he was being bullied by the other male reindeer in the herd and starting to show abnormal development including strange antler growth.
Leading vet Romain Pizzi would normally have to depend on open abdominal surgery, which is 20 years behind human medical advances and in animals means a much slower and more painful recovery, and greater risk of complications.
But the equipment provided by the Leeds company allowed keyhole – or laparoscopic – surgery to be performed to remove the body part, which although swollen had not developed into a tumour.
Mr Pizzi, a veterinary surgeon with the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, based at Edinburgh Zoo, said: "The operation was been a great success and Eskimo has made a speedy recovery.
"Laparoscopic surgery is still very uncommon in veterinary medicine, even among common species such as dogs, cats and horses, so for keyhole surgery to be carried out on a reindeer shows a great advancement in veterinary surgery."
Vets perform on average 600,000 open abdominal procedures annually on all pets but it is believed that less than one per cent of them currently practice laparoscopic surgery.
Mr Pizzi believes that with the right instrumentation developed by companies such as Surgical Innovations, UK vets now have the opportunity to introduce laparoscopic techniques as part of their operating procedure.
He added: "This procedure was only really possible thanks to a cutting-edge retractor which we were able to use in this case."
Surgical Innovationshas made a global name for itself and works with agencies such as the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, as well as the UK's fastest growing veterinary distributor Ark Surgical.
Managing Director GrahamBowland said: "We are pleased that the operation on Eskimo was a success."
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 26 May 2012
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Temperature: 9 C to 21 C
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