200 RESECTION OF THE LATERAL CARTILAGE. 



Above the cartilage toward the fetlock the operator must 

 keep the fingers of one hand against the external skin in 

 order to avoid cutting through it or thinning it too much 

 at this point. The flap is held turned upwards by an assist- 

 ant or a strong suture is passed through it and turning it 

 upwards the suture ends are carried around the pastern and 

 tied. 



As a rule there is now seen a prominent, greenish colored 

 necrotic piece of cartilage surrounded by brownish red 

 masses of granulations. By means of an incision through 

 the cartilage parallel to the long axis of the foot, divide it 

 into anterior and posterior halves and extirpate the latter 

 first by dissecting it out on the inner side from the para- 

 chondral tissue with the sage knife. Begin the excision 

 of the cartilage by engaging the supero-anterior angle of 

 the posterior half with the tenaculum and exerting moderate 

 traction dissect it away from the underlying tissues first 

 along the line of the dividing incision down to the base and 

 then cut backward toward the heel cutting the cartilage 

 away from its continuous bone. The point of the knife must 

 be constantly directed against the ca?'tilage. 



Since the inner surface of the anterior half of the cartilage 

 lies immediately against the capsular ligament of the corono- 

 pedal articulation the latter should be sharply extended by 

 an assistant seizing the toe and forcing it forward. By 

 this means the capsular ligament is drawn away from the 

 cartilage during its extirpation. 



The anterior half of the cartilage, k, is then removed in 

 the same way, except with the greatest possible care to 

 avoid puncturing the corono-pedal articulation. The chief 

 precaution is to dissect only with the point of the sage knife, 

 using at all times that knife, right or left, which will result 

 in the concave surface being presented toward the cartilage ; 

 then by carefully keeping the line of excision immediately 

 .against the cartilage, material danger of penetrating the 



