# OCD surgery cost



## max (Jun 24, 2008)

I got a guote of 2500 for one shoulder, does this sound right?


----------



## mdegra (Jul 11, 2008)

Is it a canine or human OCD? Treatment of OCD lesions in humans depends on several factors, most importanly displacement. Often, the displaced fragment can flip and become unstable. In that case, depending on what is seen arthroscopically, you can attempt to stabilize these lesions. If it is displaced and a decent sized piece, you can fix it back in place with a special screw/screws. There are other procedures, like a microfracture or OATS procedure, that can be done if the fragment is not appropriate for replacement. I have an orthpaedic vet I use, and I will ask him about costs if it is your pup that requires treatment. It is important to note that procedures to restore the joint surface, such as an OATS procedure, do not reproduce the same type of cartilage found in the original joint surface. It is a fibrocartilage. A guy named Tom Minas at Harvard is a leading authority on cartilage restoration. His website is http://cartilagerepaircenter.org/. If it was my joint, he'd be the guy that I would seek. If it is your pup, let me know, and I can talk to some of my product guys regarding joint reconstruction. I had them building a hip for my lab, but I ended up having an ACL reconstruction and it's worked out well. But avoid any of these laser treatments/platelet injection treatments. There are no easy answers for joint surface defects.


----------



## alynn (Apr 5, 2008)

This past summer we paid an ortho vet just under 3K for canine OCD surgery. In addition to that, we had costs for physical therapy, medications, etc. Very expensive. We did the surgery in the hopes that our pup would recover faster than if we took a wait and see approach. In retrospect, the rehab from the surgery was as long as the wait and see time. In either way we lost a season of training. If we had to do it again, we would not do surgery, and do PT, etc first.


----------



## mdegra (Jul 11, 2008)

If the cartilage is intact over the lesion, and the skeleton is immature, you can try conservative therapy. This basically involves keeping the patient off of the extremity, in the hopes that the subchondral lesion will heal (beneath the cartilage). If the cartilage is flipped up, the treatment is surgical. If the lesion is large and/or displaced, you may see mechanical symptoms, such as locking, due to the fragment impeding joint motion. I would talk to your vet and see if he can tell if the lesion is unstable. We frequently MRI our patients to see if we can see a displaced lesion. We also frequently scope the affected joint. Repairs can be done with various products. In kids, I will place buried compression screws to hold the piece in place and promote healing. If the lesion is unstable/displaced, physical therapy or conservative treatment is unlikely to lead to healing. Your pup may start to feel better as the inflamation diminishes, but once the lesion grows, he/she will develop increasing pain/arthrosis. Be very careful when you make decisions regarding treatment options of injuries that involve the surface of a joint. The tolerances are very low. Please let me know if I can help out. Again, I work on people. But my step-brother is a vet and does a lot of orthopaedic work. I can also give you the number of an ortho vet here in Baton Rouge, or I can call him for you, if you want an objective second opinion.


----------

