New State-of-the-Art Laparoscope!

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We have exciting news from Animal Hospital of Statesville! We now have a laparoscope to add to our state-of-the-art surgery offerings! Laparoscopes are commonly used in human medicine to decrease surgery incision size, lessen pain, and reduce healing time. Animal Hospital of Statesville now has the ability to use our new laparoscope to provide the same benefits to pets! Our laparoscope, at least initially, will mostly be an option for spays and gastropexies for dogs over 20 pounds. Spay surgeries performed with the laparoscope will be ovariectomies, which differ from traditional ovariohysterectomies (spays) in that the laparoscopic surgery only removes the ovaries instead of both the uterus AND the ovaries. A gastropexy is a surgery which tacks the stomach to the body wall, which eliminates the possibility of life-threatening gastric dilatation volvulous, or GDV, which can lead to what’s commonly called bloat. Again, this laparoscopic-assisted surgery reduces incision size, lessens pain, and decreases healing time, and is often performed on large dogs (which are more at risk for GDV than their smaller counterparts) at the same time the spay surgery is performed. There are other procedures that benefit from the use of the laparoscope, but for now, we will focus on spays and gastropexies. While most dogs over 20 pounds may benefit from the use of the laparoscope, large dogs, especially, will be the biggest beneficiaries. If you are interested in this procedure, please call our office at 704-872-3625 to speak with Dr. Brett Pendergrass. He can help you determine if this is the best option for your dog!