Champaign, Ill. (WCIA)

Dr. Jacqui Scott, Assistant Professor, Small Animal Soft Tissue Surgery at The University of Illinois, Veterinary Teaching Hospital is a small animal surgeon who recently performed a very interesting procedure that saved the life of a puppy with a congenital defect without doing invasive surgery.

Here’s more from the Veterinary Teaching Hospital:

It was the first time at our hospital that a  minimally invasive surgical correction was performed for a persistent right aortic arch. This is a condition where the aorta grows on the wrong side of the body and causes constriction of the esophagus. Dr. Scott fixed the puppy’s problem non-invasively, using a scope instead of making a large incision through the chest.

Here’s more from Dr. Scott:

I am a small animal soft tissue surgeon which means I perform surgery on peoples beloved pets.

I am primarily interested in minimally invasive surgery which is surgery using key hole incisions to introduce a camera and instruments into the animals abdomen (laparoscopy) or chest (thoracoscopy). These surgeries allow us to perform complex procedures that traditionally require much larger incisions and longer recovery times.

I help owners when their pet is suffering from a multitude of conditions but some of the most rewarding are in cases where surgeries previously performed “open” can now be performed in a minimally invasive manner such as liver biopsies, prophylactic gastropexy, ovariectomy (spay), cholecystectomy (gall bladder removal), and adrenalectomy (removal of a adrenal tumor). In particular cases where we would normally need to completely open the chest can now be performed with 3-4x 1cm incisions. Primary lung tumors, persistent right aortic arch, and chylothorax can all be addressed thoracoscopically and significantly reduce patient pain and hospitalization time.