Disk Surgery for Dogs: Does it Work?

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Oklahoma State University’s Center for Veterinary Health Sciences has been offering percutaneous laser disk ablation surgery for dogs for more than 20 years. The procedure offers relief of the risk that a future disk herniation will occur in dogs who had previously suffered from herniated disks. First investigated by former OSU professors Drs. George Henry and Kenneth Bartels, the American Veterinary Medical Association just released follow up research on the recurrence of disk herniation following the procedure.

Drs. Danielle Dugat and Kenneth Bartels studied 303 dogs that underwent PLDA and were followed for three years after their procedure. Overall, owners reported that their dog was the same or improved immediately following PLDA and 92.7 percent of owners rated their satisfaction with the procedure as a 9 on a scale from 1 (completely dissatisfied) to 10 (completely satisfied).

Dugat is a board certified small animal surgeon and an assistant professor in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at OSU’s Veterinary Medical Hospital. She performs approximately 25 disk ablation surgeries a year.

The full text of the research can be found on the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association’s website.