Available at our Oakham Hospital
At Oakham our surgical suite has three operating areas, all accessed from the induction and recovery boxes via overhead gantries. We have a fully clean theatre for elective sterile procedures under general anaesthesia. This facility has positive pressure ventilation with antibacterial filters and is up to human hospital hygiene standards. The second theatre is designed to be used for colic surgery and contaminated procedures, it is designed to enable horses to be rapidly prepared for emergency surgery under anaesthesia. The third facility is designed for the increasing numbers of procedures carried out under local anaesthesia in the standing horse.
Orthopaedic surgery
• Arthroscopic (key hole) surgery has now replaced open joint surgery, with the use of motorised arthroscopic instruments a wide range of joint lesions can be treated by this minimally invasive technique, this enables shorter convalescence times, and improve success rates in treating lameness.
• Fracture repair techniques are constantly evolving to increase the number of fractures that can be successfully repaired.
• Infected joints and other synovial structures can now be treated by arthroscopy(joints), bursoscopy(Bursas) and tenoscopy (tendonsheaths). These are keyhole techniques that have improved our ability to treat infected structures and return many more of these life threatening cases to full atheletic function (soundness).
Colic surgery
We see about 100 surgical colic cases per year, and through improved anaesthesia, surgery techniques and post operative medical support, combined with earlier recognition of the condition by referring vets are seeing increasingly good success rates. A high proportion of these cases now have excellent long term prospects.
Upper airway surgery
We now have very effective surgical techniques for the correction of upper airway obstruction in high performance horses. From the trusty hobday, the established tie-back to the recent tie-forward for soft palate displacement.
Dental/sinus surgery
Recent advances in local anaesthetic techniques have enabled us to perform almost all dental extractions and sinus surgeries on the standing horse, this reduces cost and complication rates.
Ophthalmology
By working with human surgery colleagues in the hospital at Oakham we are able to offer advance ophthalmic surgery for cataract disease.
We have developed prosthetic techniques for improving the aesthetic appearance of horses following the necessary removal of a badly damaged eye.
General surgery
Recent advances include laparoscopy (keyhole abdominal surgery) for a variety of abdominal problems, carried out under standing local anaesthesia.
Gynaecological surgery
Almost all gynaecological techniques for correction of conformational problems and repair of foaling injuries are carried out in our standing operating stocks and now result in excellent breeding prospects.
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