34th Annual Scientific Meeting proceedings

Objectives:

Feline enterectomy is commonly performed in referral and general veterinary practice in Australia, however existing studies in the veterinary literature lack significant case numbers to guide clinical decision making. Despite the lowering cost and increasing availability of surgical staplers no studies evaluate the use of surgical staplers in gastrointestinal surgery in cats. The objective of this study is to investigate the feasibility and outcomes of feline enterectomy performed by hand sutured end to end anastomosis (EEA) compared to stapled functional end to end anastomosis (SFEEA).

Methods:

Medical records of four referral hospitals were retrospectively searched for cats which had undergone enterectomy between 2003 and 2022. Data was compared between SFEEA and EEA techniques, and outcomes were evaluated to identify risk factors for complications in the short and long term.  

Results:

54 cats met the inclusion criteria for this study with 24 undergoing a SFEEA whilst 30 underwent EEA. A significant difference in anaesthesia time is shown between the two groups with SFEEA was 34.3 minutes faster than EEA. Unique complications reported for the SFEEA group included haemoabdomen and anastomotic stricture.

Conclusions:

SFEEA should be considered in cats where anaesthetic time should be kept as short as possible such as patients with of ASA scores of 3-4. Stricture at the anastomotic site may be seen in the long term for cats undergoing SFEEA. Results presented here aim to guide clinical decision making for surgeons undergoing enterectomy in cats and additionally guide closed staple height selection when employing a surgical stapler for enterectomy in cats.