Page 50 - Clinical Manual of Small Animal Endosurgery

38 Clinical Manual of Small Animal Endosurgery

Fig. 2.6 Fluid compression bag with hand pump and manometer, useful
for small joints.

device (Fig. 2.8). When fluid is collected via tubing connected to the
egress cannula, care must be taken to ensure that the presence and weight
of the tubing does not cause damaging impingement of the egress cannula/
needle against articular cartilage. Simple and quick procedures which use
a low volume of fluid can be performed using an adhesive drape with
an integrated fluid-collecting pouch, although this technique requires
careful setting up of patient position and draping to ensure that the fluid
is effectively collected in the pouch (Fig. 2.9).

Arthroscopic surgical instruments

For arthroscopic surgery, a few basic surgical instruments are addition-
ally required, including a scalpel blade and handle; and in case the
operator wishes to convert an arthroscopic procedure into an arthrot-
omy, a routine set of traditional surgical instruments should be readily
available. An arthroscopic procedure also requires a small selection of
syringes (2, 5 and 20 ml) and injection needles (22–14 gauge).

Cannulae
In order to readily introduce arthroscopic instruments through peri-
articular soft tissues with minimal difficulty and to induce the least peri-