224 VETERINARY SURGICAL OPERATIONS 



try. Although performed and somewhat freely discussed by 

 continental veterinarians for some few years past, it has only 

 been performed a few times in America. It cannot be claimed 

 that the operation is in general use among American prac- 

 titioners. Although some publicity has been given to it by 

 Schumacher in the American Veterinary Review, and later 

 by the writer in the Quarterly Bulletin of the Chicago Veter- 

 inary College, little has been heard of its adoption by the 

 country practitioner, who alone meets the appropriate sub- 

 jects in sufficient numbers to give it the thorough trial upon 

 which definite conclusions must be based. Schumacher re- 

 ports two cures which were prompt and permanent. Our 

 experience is limited to one case which was promptly and 

 permanently benefited. Simpson reports a case in a full 

 grown horse that was promptly benefited after the operation, 

 but the permanent effects have not been reported. These 

 few cases are the only ones known to have been submitted 

 to the operation since its introduction in this country, in 

 spite of the facts that the disease is very common in breeding 

 districts, and that the operation is manifestly effectual. The 

 difficulty of its technique and the apparent danger of injuring 

 the synovials of the stifle seem thus far to have induced dis- 

 suasive arguments against it. The few cases reported in 

 this country, although all were favorable, do not seem to 

 have been sufficient to prompt its general adoption against 

 the warning of its dangerousness by such well known writers 

 as Moller, and others, who emphasize the great liability of 

 transgressing upon dangerous ground while attempting to 

 locate and isolate the ligament whose outlines are none too 

 well marked. In our experience no such complications have 

 ever followed in the many experimental operations per- 

 formed (on normal stifles) during the past six years, when 

 the technique was carried out according to certain specified 

 directions. In the case previously referred to it was found 

 much easier to find the ligament then in normal stifles, be- 

 cause the ligament, having been constantly submitted to 

 stretching as the patella slipped in and out, became isolated 

 and separated from the adjacent structures. Its isolation 

 and division was a very simple matter. These deductions are 

 identical with those of Schumacher and Simpson, both of 

 whom found the operation easy enough to perform without 

 endangering the underlying capsular ligament, and without 

 the trouble in isolating the ligament that is so constantly 

 heralded. 



Bassi and others have recommended the operation for 



