Canine cruciate surgery registry sees a 79 percent increase in surgeries

The 2024 annual report of the groundbreaking RCVS Knowledge Canine Cruciate Registry (CCR) has revealed a 79 percent increase in the number of surgeries recorded by UK veterinary professionals in the last year. The Registry’s dataset now contains the details of 1,319 canine cruciate surgical procedures, compared with 735 reported in 2023.

The report was produced by RCVS Knowledge and contains 3 years of data, up to July 2024. This data was provided by 138 UK-based veterinary professionals and their clients, and reports on cruciate surgery outcomes on dogs from all stages of life – from 3 months to 18 years. The report provides a breakdown of the clinical outcomes of different surgical techniques, patient demographics, use of antibiotics, and more.

Some of the key findings of this year’s annual report were:

• Staffordshire Bull Terriers are no longer among the top five most common breeds on the registry, with Cockapoos jumping from seventh most common to fourth
• The rest of the top five remained unchanged from 2023: Labrador Retrievers (first), English Springer Spaniels (second) Golden Retrievers (third), and Cocker Spaniels (fifth)
• The most commonly performed procedures were osteotomies, while the proportion of Tibial Plateau Levelling Osteotomy (TPLO) procedures have increased
• Regional anaesthesia was used in 82.6 percent of patients. A femoral and sciatic block was the most commonly performed technique
• Patient weights ranged from 1.6kg to 80.3kg, with the number of patients reported as Overweight and Too Heavy having reduced by 1.5 percent since the last report
• Most patients (97.5 percent) had an intra-articular assessment, a 5.5 percent increase from 2023 Arthrotomies remain the most common
• Antibiotics were used peri-operatively for most patients (99.9 percent), remaining constant with data from 2023
• Only about a third (36.1 percent) of patients were dispensed post-operative antibiotics, a reduction of 1 percent since 2023
• Adverse event reporting increased, with haemorrhage remaining the most common. In line with the last report, the majority of patients are still rated "much better" at all time intervals post-surgery

Mark Morton, clinical lead for the Registry, said: “It has been fantastic to see the CCR go from strength to strength this year with contributions from owners and vets across the country. Evaluating what we do and sharing this information with owners is really important. There is now sufficient data in the registry that vets can use the reporting functionality to see how they compare to anonymous data from the registry as whole. This allows everyone to look at where we can improve what we do to enhance outcomes for our patients.”

Steve Butterworth, veterinary surgeon at Weighbridge Referral Service, Swansea, and CCR contributor, said: “To better understand the long-term outcomes for different breeds of dog using differing surgical techniques we need the power of numbers and this will only be achieved by pooling our resources.  The CCR offers the veterinary profession an opportunity to do this.  Ultimately, doing so might enable us to better inform owners of outcomes following surgery and, potentially, to enhance our ability to customise treatment for each patient.”

The CCR is the first web-based veterinary registry to be operated at scale, incorporating data and feedback from both veterinary professionals and animal owners. It aims to improve patient outcomes by providing veterinary professionals and owners with the data they need to navigate clinical decisions with confidence.

Any veterinary surgeon performing cruciate surgery in the UK can get involved in the CCR by signing up and logging surgical cases. All data submitted by summer 2025 will be anonymised and become part of the next report in late 2025.

The RCVS Knowledge Canine Cruciate Registry Annual Report 2024 can be accessed for free here.