THE TREATMENT OF DISK PROTRUSION IN DOGS WITH PERCUTANEOUS INTRADISCAL LASER-DISKECTOMY (PILD)

Six patients from the Small Animal Clinic of Hannover Veterinary schoo l suffering from discopathy were treated with the PILD method (Percuta neous Intradiscal LASER Discectomy), which was developed in human medi cine. Prior to treating the patients, experiments were performed on is olated dog disks to evaluate the general efficacy of the LASER with an absorption spectrum, and to define the safety in clinical application with calorimetry. The advantage of the method ties in its simple appl ication and the possibility to treat several disks in one operation. L ike in human medicine, however, patients with discopathy must be chose n carefully in order to avoid failures. It was found out in the invest igation that patients with lumbalgy and only minor neurological defici encies can be treated successfully with respect to elimination of symp toms and prevention of relapse. Animals with severe neurological sympt oms, like ataxia or paralysis, should be treated with decompressing su rgical techniques. Since the apparatus needed for PILD is quite compli cated and expensive, this technique will be restricted to larger clini cs.