1998). In one veterinary study, the accuracy of frozen sections in determining a specific diagnosis was 83% (Whitehair et al. 1993). In that same study, frozen sections were able to make a determination between neoplastic and nonneoplastic diseases in 93% of cases (Whitehair et al. 1993).
Wound Healing
The veterinary oncologic patient has several risk factors that may increase the frequency of complications associated with wound healing (Cornell and Waters 1995). Nutritional compromise and concomitant disease can be treated to improve the outcome of wound healing, but other factors like tumor type and completeness of surgical excision have to be considered as well. Neoadjuvant/adjuvant therapies such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and antiangiogenic medications have also been documented to impair wound healing (Devereux et al. 1979; Cornell and Waters 1995; te Velde et al. 2002; Séguin et al. 2005) (see Chapter 2).
Proper surgical techniques, as described above, can be employed to decrease the chance of wound complications. Regular communication with the patient’s agent both before and after surgery will help to preemptively prepare for complications or aid in rapid identification and intervention when complications arise. Prevention of self‐trauma should be routinely discussed with the owner and methods of prevention such as bandaging or having the patient wear an Elizabethan collar should be included in the postoperative care.
Adjuvant Therapy
The time to discuss the potential need for adjuvant therapy in a tumor patient is prior to any surgical intervention. This allows owners to make informed choices and to better prepare for the financial burden, time required, and potential complications associated with adjuvant therapy. Failing to properly prepare the client for these additional treatments and the benefits and challenges unique to each one may leave the patient’s agent feeling overwhelmed, underinformed and may expose the patient to unnecessary morbidity or delay in treatment.
Chemotherapy in the adjuvant setting is generally administered after wound healing has been completed. Experimentally, it has been shown that administering certain types of chemotherapy before or at the same time as surgery may retard wound healing (Shamberger et al. 1981; de Roy van Zuidewijn et al. 1986; Lawrence et al. 1986a, b) (see also Chapter 2). By the time a patient is ready for suture/staple removal, a wound is generally healed sufficiently, and chemotherapy may be administered. The results of the biopsy will also be accessible at a similar time, and these can help to guide chemotherapeutic recommendations.
Radiation therapy may be administered preoperatively or postoperatively. In general, radiation therapy will slow wound healing. In cases where radiation is given either before or after surgery, it is important to ensure that there is minimal tension on the wound closure. This requires careful planning prior to and during the initial surgery. In some cases, if local flaps will require extensive dissection in areas away from the tumor bed and outside the proposed radiation field, it may be better to delay primary closure until it is known if tumor margins are clean. This will help prevent the seeding of tumor cells along the dissection planes where the flap will be raised. In postoperative patients who require radiation therapy but have wound complications such as infection or dehiscence, it is often better to try to manage the wound complication before beginning radiation. This may not always be possible as tumor remaining in the wound may prevent wound healing. In these cases, it may be necessary to go forward with radiation in an open wound setting. In many cases, once acute effects have resolved, the wound can be closed. In these cases, strict adherence to the “no skin tension” rule is imperative.
While certain basic concepts of surgery will remain static for the treatment of neoplasia, pursuit of better options for our patients will require that the surgical oncologist remains adaptive. It is hopeful that the desire for improved outcomes will continue to improve the lives of our patients as well as their agents. Prolonging a quality of life for veterinary patients and advising their agents appropriately about the options that we have to offer should remain our goal as advances in therapy occur.
References
1 Aiken, S.W. 2003. Principles of surgery for the cancer patient. Clin Tech Small Anim Pract 18:75–81.
2 Atwater, S.W., B.E. Powers, R.D. Park, et al. 1994. Thymoma in dogs: 23 cases (1980–1991). J Am Vet Med Assoc 205:1007–1013.
3 Barnes, R.F., C.L. Greenfield, D.J. Schaeffer, et al. 2006. Comparison of biopsy samples obtained using standard endoscopic instruments and the harmonic scalpel during laparoscopic and laparoscopic‐assisted surgery in normal dogs. Vet Surg 35:243–251.
4 Berzina, I., L.C. Sharkey, I. Matise, et al. 2008. Correlation between cytologic and histopathologic diagnoses of bone lesions in dogs: A study of the diagnostic accuracy of bone cytology. Vet Clin Pathol 37:332–338.
5 Bonfanti, U., W. Bertazzolo, E. Bottero, et al. 2006. Diagnostic value of cytologic examination of gastrointestinal tract tumors in dogs and cats: 83 cases (2001–2004). J Am Vet Med Assoc 229:1130–1133.
6 Britt, T., C. Clifford, A. Barger, et al. 2007. Diagnosing appendicular osteosarcoma with ultrasound guided fine‐needle aspiration: 36 cases. J Small Anim Pract 48:145–150.
7 Cates, J.M. 2017. Reporting surgical resection margin status for osteosarcoma: Comparison of the AJCC, MSTS, and Margin Distance Methods. Am J Surg Pathol 41:633–642.
8 Chiam, H.W., P.G. Maslen, and G.J. Hoffman. 2003. Marking the surgical margins of specimens: Commercial acrylic pigments are reliable, rapid and safe. Pathology 35:204–206.
9 Cohen, M., M.W. Bohling, J.C. Wright, et al. 2003. Evaluation of sensitivity and specificity of cytologic examination: 269 cases (1999–2000). J Am Vet Med Assoc 222:964–967.
10 Cornell, K. and D.J. Waters. 1995. Impaired wound healing in the cancer patient: Effects of cytotoxic therapy and pharmacologic modulation by growth factors. Vet Clin North Am Small Pract 25:111–131.
11 De Roy van Zuidewijn, D.B.W., T. Wobbes, T. Hendriks, et al. 1986. The effect of antineoplastic agents on the healing of small intestinal anastomoses in the rat. Cancer 58:62–66.
12 DeBerry, J.D., C.R. Norris, V.F. Samii, et al. 2002. Correlation between fine‐needle aspiration cytopathology and histopathology of the lung in dogs and cats. J Am Anim Hosp Assoc 38:327–336.
13 Dernell, W.S. and S.J. Withrow. 1998. Preoperative patient planning and margin evaluation. Clin Tech Small Anim Pract 13:17–21.
14 DeRycke, L.M.J.H., J.J. van Bree, and P.J.M. Simoens. 1999. Ultrasound‐guided tissue‐core biopsy of liver, spleen and kidney in normal dogs. Vet Radiol Ultrasound 40:294–299.
15 Devereux, D.F., L. Thibault, J. Boretos, et al. 1979. The quantitative and qualitative impairment of wound healing by adriamycin. Cancer 43:932–938.
16 Dores, C.B., M. Milovancev, and D.S. Russell. 2018. Comparison of histologic margin status in low‐grade cutaneous and subcutaneous canine mast cell tumours examined by radial and tangential sections. Vet Comp Oncol 16:125–130.
17 Drixler, T.A., E.E. Voest, T.J.M.V. van Vroonhoven, et al. 2000. Angiogenesis and surgery: From mice to man. Eur J Surg 166:435–446.
18 Ehrhart, N. 1998. Principles of tumor biopsy. Clin Tech Small Anim Pract 13:10–16.
19 Ehrhart, E.J., and B.E. Powers. 2007. The pathology of neoplasia. In Small Animal Clinical Oncology, 4th edition, pp. 54–67. S. Withrow and D. Vail, editors. Philadelphia: WB Saunders.
20 Ehrhart, N.P. and S.J. Withrow. 2007. Biopsy principles. In Small Animal Clinical Oncology, 4th edition, pp. 147–153. S. Withrow and D. Vail, editors. Philadelphia: WB Saunders.
21 Eich, C.S., J.G. Whitehair, S.D. Moroff, et al. 2000. The accuracy of intraoperative cytopathological diagnosis compared with conventional histopathological diagnosis. J Am Anim Hosp Assoc 36:16–18.
22 Engellau