References
Canine developmental elbow disease part 1: aetiopathogenesis and diagnosis
Abstract
Elbow dysplasia or ‘developmental elbow disease’ as it is now known, is an umbrella term encompassing multiple abnormalities of the elbow joint. These include elbow incongruity, fragmented medial coronoid process, osteochondritis dissecans and ununited anconeal process. These problems may occur individually or in combination with each other and all may cause lameness, pain, reluctance to exercise and restricted movement as the disease progresses. The advanced stage of osteoarthritis associated with medial coronoid disease involving extensive damage to or loss of cartilage is known as medial compartment disease. There are multiple modalities available for imaging the elbow joint: radiography which is widely available in general practice can detect some changes but may miss others; computed tomography in conjunction with arthroscopic examination is considered the ‘gold standard’ in elbow imaging. Part 1 of this two part series of articles introduces the aetiopathogenesis of canine developmental elbow disease, and part 2 will cover the surgical and nonsurgical management.
The canine elbow is a complex joint composed of the humerus, ulna and radius. The articulating regions of these bones are the radial head, ulna trochlear notch, anconeal process, medial and lateral coronoid processes of the ulna and the trochlea, capitulum and supratrochlear foramen of the humerus. Together these bones form a hinge made up of three smaller synovial joints. All three of these joints serve different purposes. The humeroradial joint transmits most of the weight bearing, the humeroulnar restricts the movement of the joint to flexion and extension and the radioulnar joint allows rotational movement.
Elbow joint disease is a relatively common diagnosis in dogs and has a high welfare impact as evidenced by the high proportion of cases recorded with pain, lameness and analgesic therapy (O'Neil, 2020). Canine elbow dysplasia is a term encompassing multiple developmental anomalies of the cubital joint, including elbow incongruity, a fragmented medial coronoid process, an ununited anconeal process, osteochondritis of the humeral condyle and ununited medial epicondyle (Burton and Owen, 2008).
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