Canines with severe joint pain and arthritis may soon get a new leash on life as clinical trials proceed for a new surgical technique.

Veterinarian Steven Budsberg, a professor at the University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, and William Liska, veterinarian at Gulf Coast Veterinary Specialists in Houston, performed Georgia’s first clinical canine knee replacement surgery on April 10. The dog that underwent the surgery was 12-year-old Sapphire, a black Labrador retriever from Augusta.

Jim Cartee, Sapphire’s owner, said the dog had been plagued with health problems such as hip dysplasia for much of her life, and in the past five years had both of her hips replaced. Cartee said Sapphire blew out both of her anterior cruciate ligaments when she was two. When Sapphire recently blew an ACL for the third time, Cartee said he was “at wit’s end.”

“I had a cripple with two new hips,” he said in a telephone interview.

Cartee said he decided to go forward with the knee replacement surgery after consulting with Budsberg, who had been Sapphire’s vet for several years.

Liska flew in from Houston to assist with the $4,000 procedure, which was performed at the College of Veterinary Medicine.

“Knee replacement surgery in dogs is similar to the procedure performed in humans,” Liska said.

He said the surgery is mainly performed to “relieve chronic joint pain from arthritis,” and therefore improve joint function. Liska has been working with engineers at BioMedtrix, a veterinary orthopedics company based out of New Jersey, since 2001 to create “the prosthesis and instrumentation, as well as the surgical technique” for the knee replacement.

Budsberg described the prosthesis as having three main components.

He said the top of the tibia is removed and a metal composite tray is cemented in place. A jig, which “looks identical to the knee itself,” is attached to the femur. He referred to the femoral component as a “press fit,” into which the bone will grow.

Liska said the surgery “is not risky, but it can be technically challenging” because it is new. He said veterinarians are trained to operate on the knee, as ACL injuries in canines are common, and can “easily adapt their skills to perform the [knee replacement] surgery after proper training and practice.”

His first clinical trial using the procedure and prosthesis was with a “working dog” in Finland during June 2005. He said the dog continues to work today. Liska said because of significant improvements in the patients involved in his other clinical trials, the procedure is becoming more common.

Cartee said Sapphire came home four days after her surgery “with [the knee] bending and weight bearing,” and when she climbed the stairs, she was using her new knee first to lift her hind weight.

As part of another clinical research project, Sapphire’s recovery has been measured by the biomechanics lab in the College of Veterinary Medicine to “make sure the knee is actually doing what it says,” Budsberg said.

He said the lab measures the angle of flexion in the knee and how much weight the knee can take.

“She’s actually rehabilitating faster than we expected,” he said. “For her age, she’s doing fine.”

So fine, in fact, that Liska said Sapphire “may have been doing too good too soon.

“We prefer that dogs not be doing vigorous or strenuous activity for about six to eight weeks,” he said.

Liska said the implications for the future of veterinary medicine are huge.

“In 2006, over $1 billion was spent on knee injuries in dogs in the USA according to a published article,” he said. “Arthritis is as common in dogs as it is in people. When we are able to do the surgery ‘routinely,’ many dogs will be helped by improving their quality of life.”