From:
Caitlyn Martin
Date: 2005-05-05 23:51:02 UTC
Subject: Right adrenal surgery: Cryo vs. conventional
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <20050505235102.4624.qmail@web50806.mail.yahoo.com>
--- Sharratuck@aol.com wrote:
> The reason I prefer cyro is that it's frozen instead
> of cut which in the case of the right adrenal (geez,
> I hope I'm right here-lol) can be dangerous as it
> lays on a main blood vessel which even if nicked is
> serious.
You are correct that the right adrenal gland is
attached to the vena cava, the main vein to the heart.
Our original vet (now semi-retired and on a limited
schedule) prefers conventional microsurgery and
ligation of the vena cava to cryo (and he did cryo for
a while) precisely because it is a difficult and
dangerous surgery. With cryo he feels all too often a
little bit of the gland (and therefore the disease) is
left in. If you nick the vena cava with cryo the
frozen tissue will cause the ferret to bleed out and
die.
Bottom line, though, is that he feels either surgery
is equally good. He also sees promise in laser
surgery. He is just more comfortable with
conventional surgery than cryo.
BTW, the vet in question has been doing right adrenal
surgeries for a very long time. I believe he is
credited with pioneering the vena cava ligation
technique and that he did the first successful right
adrenalectomy. I know he's done it on three of my
ferrets, one (Podo) at age seven and a half. All
three came through surgery just fine.
Regards,
Caity and the fantastic five
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