The role of lymph nodes and their drainage in canine mammary gland tumours: Systematic review.

Mammary gland tumours are the most common neoplasms in intact bitches. Over the last decades, veterinary oncology has evolved in detecting and determining the lymph nodes to be removed in these patients for an accurate staging and prognosis, as well as to achieve better disease control and higher overall survival time. Our objective was to describe recent advances related to lymphatic drainage in bitches with mammary gland tumours, focusing on surgery, diagnosis, and prognosis. Through a systematic review using PubMed as the database, a thorough multi-step search reduced 316 studies to 30 for analysis. Vital dyes appear to be crucial in reducing the overall surgery time through transoperative staining of the lymph nodes. Imaging contrasts provide information regarding specific tumour drainage; however, there is still little evidence for their use. The axillary and superficial inguinal lymph nodes are well-established as regional lymph nodes of the cranial and caudal mammary glands. In sequence, accessory axillary, medial iliac, popliteal, and sternal lymph nodes should receive attention if they demonstrate contrast drainage, even considering that the literature has not shown a relationship between drainage and metastasis in these cases. In conclusion, recent studies have provided us with more support in regional lymph node excision regarding the TNM staging system. Studies are highly heterogeneous and method comparisons do not fit due to the non-uniformity of samples, materials, and procedures. We suggest further studies with a larger sample size, complete follow-up of patients, contrast use, and lymph node morphological and immunohistochemical analysis.

Comparison of Different Pneumorrhaphy Methods after Partial Pulmonary Lobectomy in Dogs.

Pulmonary loborraphy can be performed using manual sutures and staples, although other methods, such as tissue adhesives, are also cited in the veterinary literature. Although the surgery is well tolerated in the canine species, failure in pulmonary aerostasis is still a reality since all the methods described so far eventually lead to air leakage after the use of the partial lobectomy technique in the lungs. Within this context, the aim of this research was to compare the effectiveness of different hermetic sealing methods after partial lobectomy of the right caudal lung lobe (RCLL) in dogs. 30 cadavers models were divided in 6 groups: G1-cobbler suture associated with simple continuous; G2-overlapping continuous suture associated with simple continuous suture; G3-Ford interlocking suture; G4-Stapling device; G5-Tissue glue (cyanoacrylate). After performing the sealing techniques, the lungs were submerged in water and inflated with oxygen at positive ventilatory pressures at physiological (up to 14.7 mmHg, which is equivalent to up to 20 cmH2O) and supraphysiological levels (above 14.7 mmHg) to evaluate the performance of the sealing methods. At physiological ventilatory pressure levels, there was no difference between groups. Sealing with surgical glue was superior to interlocking sutures and stapling devices at supraphysiological levels of ventilatory pressure.