Av. Eggertsdottir et al., COMPARISON OF 2 SURGICAL TREATMENTS OF GASTRIC DILATATION-VOLVULUS INDOGS, Acta veterinaria Scandinavica, 37(4), 1996, pp. 415-426
The purpose of this randomized clinical study was to compare the effec
t of 2 surgical methods in the treatment of gastric dilatation-volvulu
s (GDV) in dogs. One group of dogs (group A) was treated with and one
group (group B) without fixation of the stomach. Group A consisted of
21 cases (including 2 dropouts) and group B of 10 cases. The dogs in g
roup A received decompression, anatomical repositioning of the stomach
and a circumcostal gastropexy and the dogs in group B (the control gr
oup) received the same treatment without gastropexy. Supportive treatm
ent was the same for both groups. The randomization of the dogs in gro
ups A and B was successful with only small differences between the 2 g
roups in the breed, age, sex and initial decompression methods. At the
end of the study (censoring time), the median survival times were sig
nificantly different between group A and group B, respectively 549 and
107 days. There were no recurrences in group A while in group B 3 dog
s (50%) experienced a recurrence within 6 months. The overall death ra
tes within the first year were 32% in group A and 80% in group B. The
death rates caused by GDV and GDV related causes only, after one year
of follow-up, were 19% and 71% for groups A and B, respectively. This
study shows that treatment that included circumcostal gastropexy signi
ficantly reduced the recurrence of GDV and prolonged the postoperative
survival time compared with treatment that did not include fixation o
f the stomach.