The objective of this study was to observe and evaluate the ability of innovative vascular prosthesis, made in Riga Technical University (RTU), to incorporate in a canine model. The research has been performed in Veterinary Medicine Faculty of Latvia University of Agriculture since July 19. 2011. The research was approved by the Food and Veterinary Service of the Republic of Latvia. The research is realized within the framework of European Social Fund co-financed project ‘Establishment of interdisciplinary research groups for new functional properties of smart textiles development and integrating in innovative products’ (ESF No 2009/0198/1DP/1.1.1.2.0./09/APIA/VIAA/148). RTU produced aortic grafts 5-8 mm in diameter and 8 mm to 18 mm long were implanted retroperitoneal in 9 female, 1-3 years old Beagle dogs. Once before and regularly after the surgery, abdominal aortic and vascular graft diameter was measured in cross sections. Blood pressure was measured before and regularly after the procedure. Results show no significant differences in aortic and graft diameter before and 12 months after the operation and there are no significant differences in systolic and diastolic blood pressure before and 6 months after the aortic surgery at a significance level α 0.05. The study shows that the innovative aortic prostheses do not change in diameter and abdominal aorta transplantation surgery does not cause significant variations in blood pressure. Study is continued to find out later reactions to synthetic vascular graft.

The aim of this study was to find out the biointegration of innovative vascular prosthesis, made in Riga Technical University (RTU), in dog’s abdominal aorta. The research is being performed in Veterinary Medicine Faculty of Latvia University of Agriculture since July 19. 2011. We used 9 female gender and 1-3 years old Beagle dogs in this study. The research is approved by the Latvian Republic Food and Veterinary Service. The study is carried out in the frame of European Social Fund co-financed project ‘Establishment of interdisciplinary research groups for a new functional properties of smart textiles development and integrating in innovative products’ (ESF No. 2009/0198/1DP/1.1.1.2.0./09/APIA/VIAA/148). 5-8 mm in diameter, 8 mm - 18 mm in length RTU produced aortic grafts were implanted retroperitoneal in dogs. Before the surgery the diameter of abdominal aorta was measured in cross sections, afterwards – cranial and caudal from the prosthesis, as well cross-section diameter of vascular graft was measured. Blood pressure was measured before the surgery and after the procedure on regular basis. Results are the following: there are no significant differences in aortic and graft diameter before and 1-2 months after the operation, there are no significant differences in systolic and diastolic blood pressure before and four months after the surgery at significance level α = 0.05. The study shows that the innovative aortic prostheses don’t change in diameter, and surgery like abdominal aorta transplantation doesn’t cause significant variations in blood pressure. The study is being continued to find out later reactions to synthetic vascular graft.

A prospective study was performed on 15 client-owned dogs to assess the clinical outcome after surgical excision of canine cutaneous mast cell tumors (MCTs) depending on histologic grade and completeness of surgical margins. The surgical margins were evaluated as complete, close or incomplete if they were more than 3 mm, from 1 to 3 mm or less than 1 mm wide, respectively. Survival time for dogs with low grade MCT (based on grading by M. Kiupel et al.) was 409 days compared with only 60 days for dogs with high grade tumor. Dogs with high grade tumors had significantly shorter survival time and worse prognosis than dogs with low grade tumors (p=0.013). Complete excision was associated with lower possibility and longer time to tumor recurrence, as well as longer survival, however, marginal surgical border status did not have a significant impact on time to tumor recurrence and survival. It was also found that tumor duration but not tumor size had a significant impact on surgical margin status (p=0.047). Tumor size significantly affected survival time with larger tumors being correlated with shorter survival (p=0.03). The results of our study suggest that grade, tumor size and recurrence are significant factors for MCT prognostication.

The purpose of using electrosurgical devices in veterinary practice is to reduce bleeding during the cut increasing temperature locally, causing coagulation and apoptosis of proteins. There is a lack of data on the extent and depth of these thermal damages and whether these effects on the different tissues are the same. Because of that, the aim of this study was to investigate which of the different electrosurgical devices causes highest heating effect on the skin tissue of rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus). The research was carried out at the Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. It included 50 rabbits, on average 2 years old, clinically healthy, with similar weight and condition. We formed five experimental groups: skin tissue cut with CO2 laser (n=10), an electrocoagulator (n=10), a tissue welding device (n=10), a radiofrequency apparatus (n=10) and a scalpel as control group (n=10). In order to evaluate the thermal effects of electrosurgical instruments on tissues, we performed contactless thermography. There were taken 3 images for each animal, totally 150 skin thermo-grams. From the obtained results we conclude that the most pronounced thermal effect on rabbit’s skin was caused with laser and an electrocoagulator. All electrosurgical devices caused a significantly higher (p is less than 0.01) increase in skin temperature compared to a surgical scalpel at the moment of tissue incision. During the study, it was found that the gentlest electrosurgical devices were used on rabbit skin tissue were a radiofrequency device.