Veterinary session

The most common spinal condition is the Hansen type I disc disease in dogs, with the prevalence of 3.5%. The disease has degenerative background, the pathogenesis has already been discovered previously. Genetic studies have confirmed the feature that the disease is essentially restricted to chondrodystrophic dog breeds. The prognosis of the disease can be influenced by many factors, among which the degree of spinal cord compression seems to be essential, which can be quantified by the selection and application of high definition diagnostic imaging modalities. The selected patients we studied required standard surgical intervention (hemilaminectomy), which was performed by the same specialist surgeon. One of the goals of the research was to prove or deny the feasibility of the degree of the spinal cord compression as a factor in setting up the prognosis. It was hypothesised that there is a positive correlation between the degree of compression and the preoperative neurological status, and furthermore, between the degree of the decompression and the postoperative neurological status. The degree of compression was quantified by using 2 methods: MRI determined the total volume of the herniated material, while CT measured the minimal cross-sectional diameter of the spinal cord. A second aim was to decide which measurement method is better from prognostic point of view. The imaging measurements were carried out in the pre- and postoperative stage and these data were analysed for correlation with pre- and postoperative clinical findings characterising the neurological status (for example modified Frankel score, days to regain micturition etc.). According to the results of our study, significant association was found between preoperative spinal cord diameter and the number of days until return of micturition (p=0.01282).