Transplant recipient of the month!

Toby Gemmill, veterinary orthopaedic specialist at Willows Referrals, Solihull, UK, recently used a bone graft from Veterinary Tissue Bank to assist a shoulder fusion in a 40Kg nine-month-old Mastiff dog that had a malformed shoulder. The humeral head had failed to form, as can be seen in the CT scan below, and Toby advised surgery to fuse the joint and resolve the pain.

The shoulder joint is a high-motion joint with a large joint space, so inducing bone formation is critical in such surgeries. Toby used two bone plates to provide stability and used Veterinary Tissue Bank's DBM to induce bone fusion. 12 weeks after surgery and the joint has fused and the dog is now using its leg well. Given that this was such a young do, the benefits from Toby's surgery and the tissue graft will make a lifetime of difference to this particular canine friend.