William R. Pritchard Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital

Cardiac Surgery

Cardiac Surgery - Clinical Activities & Procedures

Building the UC Davis Cardiovascular Surgery Program - The UC Davis Cardiovascular Surgery Program was started in 2008 under the leadership of Dr Leigh Griffiths. Open heart surgery has been offered in veterinary medicine for approximately 20 years. Although many of the procedures have been shown to be curative in dogs, the relatively high risk associated with the procedure has hindered open heart surgery from becoming a routine procedure in veterinary medicine. We believe that no fundamental reason exists which would prevent open heart surgery from becoming as successful in dogs as it currently is in humans. The risks associated with open heart surgery in dogs are largely due to the relative inexperience of open heart surgery teams, and low case numbers performed in veterinary open heart surgery programs. It is well established from the literature in human patients, that with case numbers below 100-200 per year, success rates drop dramatically regardless of the skill or dedication of the open heart surgical team. In veterinary medicine, no institution has yet managed to perform more than 25 cases per year, and we believe that this alone likely has a direct bearing on current success rates. Thus, the long term goal of the UC Davis open heart surgical program is to gradually grow the program to the point where greater than 100 procedures per year can be accommodated, at which point the true success rate for open heart procedures in dogs will become evident. The infrastructure required to achieve this goal is substantial, and although the program is self funding, additional financial support from client donations will inevitably increase the rate at which program goals can be achieved. The donations section of the website details the giving opportunities available for your support of the program. We greatly appreciate all of our clients' and donors' efforts in supporting the program, and are committed to offering the potential for a brighter future to beloved dogs with heart disease.

What are Acquired Heart Diseases?

What are Congenital Heart Diseases?