Evaluation of Wound Healing Following Wide Surgical Resection and Subdermal Skin Flap Reconstruction for Management of Soft Tissue Tumours in 20 Dogs

Abstract

Background: Tumours in dogs are increasing day by day and the mainstay of treatment is surgery. Wide surgical resection of soft tissue tumour in dogs is mandatory to prevent recurrence but it leads to the formation of a large skin defect requiring skin reconstruction. Among the various skin reconstruction techniques, subdermal skin flap is a simple reconstruction technique which can be performed by harvesting full-thickness skin from the surrounding skin without using special instruments. The current study was aimed to evaluate the healing and recurrence of tumours in dogs after wide surgical resection of tumour and subdermal skin flap reconstruction.Methods: 20 dogs with soft tissue tumours presented to MSVH, GADVASU, Ludhiana, Punjab, during the period 2019-2020 were treated by wide surgical resection and subdermal skin flap technique. Routine clinico-physical, Hematobiochemical, Radiographic examinations, Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology, Histopathology and Culture Sensitivity Test were performed. Different types of flap were created according to the location of tumour and availability of the loose skin and wound healing was evaluated and complications recorded. Result: Healing of subdermal flap was seen in 15 dogs (75%) while necrosis of subdermal flap was recorded in 5 dogs (25 %) of the cases of which 4 of them had mobility of flap base and were located in ventral abdomen (n=4) and limb (n=1). Overall tumour recurrence was recorded in 3 dogs (15%) which were located in limbs of which 2 dogs had lung metastasis and the tumours were malignant. It can be concluded that single pedicle advancement flaps for thoracic region; bipedicle advancement flap for thoracic and abdominal regions; rotational flaps for lateral thoracic region and transposition flap for proximal limb region are feasible skin reconstruction techniques for the repair of large skin defects in dogs.