Laparotomy performed as an emergency or in a deteriorating patient is more likely to result in complications or death. Surgical Approach - Unlike cattle, ventral midline celiotomy with the patient under general anesthesia is the approach of choice for exploratory laparotomy. Paralumbar fossa laparotomy may be useful for nephrectomy, ureteral manipulation, C1 or C3 enterotomy, unilateral ovariectomy. Exploratory celiotomy may be performed after sedation and regional anesthesia, but this procedure is highly discouraged because of the potential for contamination of the abdomen and discomfort to the patient caused by visceral manipulation. Surgical Diagnosis and Treatment - The most common reason for abdominal surgery in our practice is to perform Cesarian section either because of uterine torsion with poor cervical dilation or severe fetal malposition.
Intestinal obstruction is a common cause of surgical gastrointestinal lesions.
We have treated digesta impaction of the proximal loop of the spiral colon, enterolith obstruction of the spiral colon, extramural obstruction of the descending colon caused by an umbilical abscess, and post-operative obstructive adhesions with small intestinal strangulation. Impaction of the proximal loop of the spiral colon may be treated by instillation of saline into the mass, message of the impaction, and administration of IV fluids for 48 hours. Enteroliths may be removed via enterotomy. We perform open herniorrhaphy with appositional closure of the abdominal wall in all patients to ensure that infected umbilical remnants do not remain in the abdomen. Urethral obstruction is an uncommon lesion in our practice, but has been seen more commonly in other geographic regions.