OCD Femur

The Catastrophe

The dog had slipped on the floor chasing his brother around the house as young dog’s do. He was a little bit lame but it didn’t seem to be very bad so mum and dad decided to see how he went.

Over the next two weeks he became progressively more lame on the leg. Dr Rob recommended X-rays.

The Condition

The pain seemed to be in the stifle (the knee) on examination. Dr Rob thought that perhaps he had damaged the cruciate ligament or possibly avulsed the tibial crest which is a common injury in powerful young dog’s that slip on the floor.

The X-rays showed that this dog had quite an unusual condition called osteochondritis dissecans or OCD for short. The OCD lesion was in the stifle which is not a very common condition but something we only see occasionally.

The Repair

There isn’t a lot that can be done with these lesions other than surgical removal. We did an open arthrotomy to explore the joint and remove the OCD fragment. We then curette the subchondral bone to allow new tissue with a blood supply to regenerate the deficit with fibrocartilage. This was a very big lesion for the body to repair.