– Setting new standards for the gentle removal of urinary stones in veterinary medicine
Dr. Roswitha Dorsch, EBVS® European Veterinary Specialist in Small Animal Internal Medicine, and her team are delighted: With the new laser for breaking up urinary stones, the specialist in urinary tract diseases can conduct studies that will set new standards in therapy. Patients at the Medical Small Animal Clinic will also benefit from the possibility of removing urinary stones from the bladder and urethra without surgery.
This topic is very important to Dr. Dorsch. The senior physician knows how common urinary stones are in cats and dogs—and: "If they get stuck in the urethra and block the flow of urine, it can be life-threatening."
Lithotripsy has the advantage of being a minimally invasive method, meaning that no surgery is required. The stones are broken up under endoscopic control (intracorporeal laser lithotripsy) and then removed. Modern devices, such as the new Holmium YAG laser at the Medical Small Animal Clinic, allow stones to be broken up into larger fragments and then virtually converted into dust (dusting effect).
The Holmium YAG laser also has a wide range of pulse energies and pulse lengths. This offers many possibilities for variation and optimal adaptation to the individual case.
"In order to improve patient care in the long term, we will first conduct in vitro studies," explains Dr. Dorsch enthusiastically. "For this purpose, we will receive stones that have already been surgically removed from Prof. Hesse at the Urinary Stone Analysis Center in Bonn. The main aim here is to investigate alternative treatment protocols for different types of stones so that we can then determine the optimal settings for our patients."
With the new laser, the Small Animal Clinic has added state-of-the-art technology to its wide range of treatment options for urinary tract diseases. For many years, Dr. Dorsch has been working closely with Professor Larry Adams from Purdue University, College of Veterinary Medicine, in West Lafayette, USA, one of the most renowned specialists in the field and a pioneer in interventional animal nephrology and urology.