For the companion avian practitioner, larger psittacine species represent patients that are suitable for corrective measures. Miniaturized techniques might be used in smaller patients. The air sac injury is usually impossible to define and correct at the source of leakage. Cutaneous taps with a hypodermic needle will reduce the trapped air and release the pressure under the skin, but rapidly closing, the subcutaneous emphysema quickly returns.
Subcutaneous emphysema is encountered as a generalized condition in smaller species.
In larger psittacines the dorsum of the neck is a commonly encountered location as the trapped air tends to rise to this area and the loose exuberant skin in the cervical area easily expands. An implanted stent placed at the base of the skull in the cervical skin in these cases effectively drains the air and cannot be reached by the bird and removed. An amazon with subcutaneous emphysema involving the lateral side of the skull has also been successfully implanted with a stent. Although there was concern that this bird could scratch at or rub the stent out, it remained in place and the chronic subcutaneous emphysema has been corrected. The unit is 12.7 or 16 mm in diameter with eight pre-drilled holes for suture placement in the subcutaneous flange.