Page 43 - Clinical Manual of Small Animal Endosurgery

Chapter 2

Diagnostic Arthroscopy

Martin R. Owen

Introduction

In modern small animal veterinary practice, arthroscopic management
for many manifestations of joint disease has become the preferred
approach over traditional investigative studies and to open joint surgery.
Arthroscopic techniques offer several advancements over historical
methods of diagnosis and treatment of joint disease:

• the opportunity to see intra-articular structures and lesions, with
great clarity and with magnification,
• the ability to recognise lesions not visible to the naked eye,

• the ability to probe and mechanically test intra-articular structures
using magnified vision, enabling sensitive evaluation of their struc-
tural integrity,
• the ability to surgically treat intra-articular lesions accurately and
with precision, with minimal morbidity.

Arthroscopic instrumentation

Arthroscope
Arthroscopes are fine-diameter telescopes comprised of a series of lenses
that collect and transmit an image from the tip of the arthroscope along
its shaft to the eyepiece. The lenses are surrounded by optic fibres which

Clinical Manual of Small Animal Endosurgery, First Edition. Edited by Alasdair Hotston Moore and
Rosa Angela Ragni.
© 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2012 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.