Radiographic features of a lateral extracapsular wire suture in the caninecranial cruciate deficient stifle

Radiographs of 74 dogs (84 stifles) presented with a cranial cruciate ligam ent rupture and surgically treated using a lateral extracapsular wire (LEW) were reviewed. A strand of orthopaedic wire was surgically placed caudally around the lateral fabella and through a predrilled hole in the tibial cre st. At six week follow-up, the LEW was broken at least once in 26 of 33 sti fles, predominantly in the area of the lateral fabella. In five stifles, th e LEW had slipped off the fabella and was displaced distally along the gast rocnemius muscle. Six months after surgery, the LEW was often broken at sev eral sites. LEW migration was rare. Osteolysis and sclerosis at the site of LEW penetration through the tibial crest occurred in about two-thirds of t he stifles examined.