Sasha is a beautiful, 2-year-old duck tolling retriever from Juneau, Alaska. She was diagnosed with a torn cruciate ligament in one of her knees and the x-rays revealed excessive slope. Since it could not be repaired using the TPLO technique, her owner could not find a vet in Alaska who could do the repair. She flew from Juneau to have surgery in our clinic in Poulsbo.
In the image above, the yellow line shows the excessive tibial plateau angle in Sasha’s left leg. This causes the femur to constantly want to slide off the back of the tibia. The cranial cruciate ligament stops the movement, but eventually, the excessive pressure on the cruciate ligament leads to its degeneration and subsequent rupture.
A traditional CBLO cut (image below – left) or TPLO cut (image below – right) would move the weight-bearing axis too far forward or too far rearward.
Now, refer to the below image. Using the double-cut technique, the red area in the photo to the left is removed prior to the forward rotation and fixation. The photo on the right shows the final pre-op plan for Sasha.
In the image below, Sasha’s post-op x-ray image shows the successful leveling of her tibial plateau using the double-cut CBLO technique at Poulsbo Animal Clinic by Dr. Adams.
