Evaluation of sterile glove usage on digital tactile sensitivity using the Grating Orientation Task.

Introduction: Surgical glove use may be associated with a decrease in tactile sensitivity, with thicker gloves or double-gloving techniques further altering sensation. This study evaluates digital tactile sensitivity by use of a Grating Orientation Task (GOT) with multiple sterile gloving techniques (no gloves, single standard gloving, double standard gloving, orthopedic gloves, and micro-thickness gloves).

Methods: Each participant performed the GOT at increasing grating widths until correctly noting orientation in ≥8 of 10 trials with multiple glove types or double-gloving technique.

Description of a novel ultrasound-guided percutaneous dilatational esophagostomy tube placement in dog cadavers.

Background: Nutritional support has become an essential part of modern veterinary medicine. Among different techniques, esophagostomy tubes have been used extensively in dogs and cats. However, general anesthesia is typically required due to the critical step of passing an instrument orally to allow identification of the esophagus in the midcervical region.

Dogs ≥ five years of age at the time of congenital extrahepatic portosystemic shunt diagnosis have better long-term outcomes with surgical attenuation than with medical management alone.

Objective: To determine the outcome in dogs diagnosed with congenital extrahepatic portosystemic shunts (EHPSS) at ≥ 5 years of age treated with medical management only (M) or with surgical attenuation (S). The hypothesis was that dogs undergoing surgical attenuation would have a longer survival time than dogs undergoing medical management only.

Animals: 351 dogs definitively diagnosed with EHPSS at ≥ 5 years of age.

Soft Elastomeric Capacitor for Strain and Stress Monitoring on Sutured Skin Tissues.

Sutures are ubiquitous medical devices for wound closures in human and veterinary medicine, and suture techniques are frequently evaluated by comparing tensile strengths in studies. Direct and nondestructive measurement of tensile force present in sutured biological skin tissue is a key challenge in biomechanical fields because of the unique and complex properties of each sutured skin specimen and the lack of compliant sensors capable of monitoring large levels of strain. The authors have recently proposed a soft elastomeric capacitor (SEC) sensor that consists of a highly compliant and scalable strain gauge capable of transducing geometric variations into a measurable change in capacitance.

Ex vivo mechanical testing of various suture patterns for use in tendon plating.

Objective: To determine the influence of suture patterns on resistance to gap formation after tendon plating STUDY DESIGN: Ex vivo study SAMPLE POPULATION: Suspensory ligament and superficial and deep digital flexor tendons harvested from 16 neonatal cadaver foal limbs.

Methods: Each tendon/ligament from a given limb was randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups consisting of a 7-hole veterinary cuttable plate fixed with alternating simple interrupted, figure-8, or hybrid suture patterns. The constructs were distracted at a rate of 1.

Radiation exposure associated with percutaneous fluoroscopically guided lag screw fixation for sacroiliac luxation in dogs.

Objective: To determine radiation exposure to surgical personnel and to evaluate the accuracy of a modified percutaneous lag screw fixation technique for sacroiliac luxation (SIL) under fluoroscopic guidance in dogs.

Study Design: Cadaveric experimental study.

Sample Population: Seventeen beagle cadavers with iatrogenic SIL.

Short-term outcomes of 59 dogs treated for ilial body fractures with locking or non-locking plates.

Objective: To determine the influence of plating systems on the clinical outcomes in dogs treated for ilial fractures.

Design: Retrospective study.

Animals: Fifty-nine dogs (63 hemipelves).

Monitoring Wound Health through Bandages with Passive LC Resonant Sensors.

This paper details a passive, inductor-capacitor (LC) resonant sensor embedded in a commercial dressing for low-cost, contact-free monitoring of a wound; this would enable tracking of the healing process while keeping the site closed and sterile. Spiral LC resonators were fabricated from flexible, copper-coated polyimide and interrogated using external reader antennas connected to a two-port vector network analyzer; the forward transmission scattering parameter (S) magnitude was collected, and the resonant frequency (MHz) and the peak-to-peak amplitude of the resonant feature were identified. These increase during the healing process as the permittivity and conductivity of the tissue change.

Numerical Investigation of Auxetic Textured Soft Strain Gauge for Monitoring Animal Skin.

Recent advances in hyperelastic materials and self-sensing sensor designs have enabled the creation of dense compliant sensor networks for the cost-effective monitoring of structures. The authors have proposed a sensing skin based on soft polymer composites by developing soft elastomeric capacitor (SEC) technology that transduces geometric variations into a measurable change in capacitance. A limitation of the technology is in its low gauge factor and lack of sensing directionality.

Use of flexible sensor to characterize biomechanics of canine skin.

Background: Suture materials and techniques are frequently evaluated in ex vivo studies by comparing tensile strengths. However, the direct measurement techniques to obtain the tensile forces in canine skin are not available, and, therefore, the conditions suture lines undergo is unknown. A soft elastomeric capacitor is used to monitor deformation in the skin over time by sensing strain.

Congenital laryngeal paralysis in Alaskan Huskies: 25 cases (2009-2014).

OBJECTIVE To characterize congenital laryngeal paralysis (CLP) in Alaskan Huskies. DESIGN Prospective case series. ANIMALS 25 Alaskan Huskies with CLP.

Application of tendon plating to manage failed calcaneal tendon repairs in a dog.

Objective: To report the application of a plate to treat a complicated calcaneal tendon rupture and the resulting outcome.

Study Design: Clinical case report.

Animals: A 3-year-old Labrador retriever.

A Comparison of Ex Vivo Leak Pressures for Four Enterotomy Closures in a Canine Model.

Initial and maximum intraluminal leak pressures of four enterotomy closures were compared. Closure patterns included a modified Gambee, simple interrupted, simple continuous, and skin staple closure. Forty-eight 3-cm enterotomy constructs were created from jejunal segments harvested from 12 dogs.

Comparison of tensile strength among simple interrupted, cruciate, intradermal, and subdermal suture patterns for incision closure in ex vivo canine skin specimens.

OBJECTIVE To compare suture placement time, tension at skin separation and suture line failure, and mode of failure among 4 suture patterns. DESIGN Randomized trial. SAMPLE 60 skin specimens from the pelvic limbs of 30 purpose-bred Beagles.