Rusty is a greyhound who I performed a major thoracic wall resection surgery on last week.
Rusty's surgery, to remove a rib osteosarcoma, involved removing part of 3 ribs in a section of his thoracic wall (chest) that was centred directly over his heart. A latissimus dorsi muscle flap was utilised to rotate into the defect, and close over the heart (described nicely in the Liptak paper if anyone would like a copy) Using an autogenous muscle flap closure has lower complications than using mesh). This procedure went very well. He required a few days recovery in PetICU and developed greyhound vasculitis and limb oedema, however he is now home with his owners and is starting chemo.
He won all our hearts over during his stay.
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