Deionised water as an adjunct to surgery for the treatment of canine cutaneous mast cell tumours

Medical records of 55 dogs with a diagnosis of cutaneous mast cell tumour w ere reviewed. Twenty-seven of the dogs were treated with surgery plus deion ised water and the remaining 28 with surgery alone. A survival analysis was performed to determine whether deionised water, as an adjunct to surgery f or cutaneous mast cell tumour, affected survival time or time to tumour rec urrence. Dogs in which mast cell tumour recurred had a significantly shorte r survival time compared with dogs with no recurrence (P = 0.05), regardles s of the method of treatment. A significant negative association between tu mour recurrence and method of treatment (P = 0.0097) and clinical stage (P = 0.0223) was observed. Dogs treated with surgery and deionised water had a significantly shorter time to recurrence of their mast cell tumour (P = 0. 0113). Based on these results, deionised water does not appear to be benefi cial in prolonging survival time or time to tumour recurrence for dogs with cutaneous mast cell tumours.