Veterinary surgeons have largely embraced surgical stapling, especially during the past 10 years. The reasons are apparent
to those veterinarians familiar with surgical stapling equipment: reduction in surgery/anesthesia time for the patient, simplicity
of application and consistency in results. Some doctors have been slow to embrace surgical stapling, primarily because of
the potential cost concerns associated with investing in the equipment and supplies, a lack of training experience and a limited
surgical caseload in a given practice.
Photo 1: Skin staplers provide a convenient and safe way to close surgical wounds.
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Skin staplers The skin stapler remains as the simplest of the stapling devices to master. In general, skin staples are easy to apply and
remove; they give the surgeon the security of a simple interrupted suture pattern while saving a significant amount of time
closing long or multiple skin incisions (Photo 1).
From my clinical experience, there are two occasions where skin staples may not be ideally suited for wound closure: closing
wounds under moderate tension, and use on thin skin. Conventional tension suture patterns are better able to maintain wound
closure in the face of moderate incisional tension, especially in areas where regional motion can enhance this distracting
force. Thin skin does not always provide sufficient dermal thickness for the proper seating or embedding of skin staples.
As a result, the skin staples have a tendency to tip or rotate, making their subsequent removal problematic. Surprisingly,
skin glue applied over the staple line, can reduce or eliminate this tendency, while providing an additional "footprint" of
security.
In more recent years, skin staplers have been effectively used to secure skin grafts to the cutaneous tissue bordering the
recipient site. The skin graft is applied over the recipient site, with its borders slightly overlapping the wound edge. Skin
staples are applied while adjusting the graft tension to assure proper graft to bed contact. Skin staples also are used to
secure dressings over a grafted area to prevent shifting of the dressing beneath the overlying bandage layers.
Skin staples are stainless steel in composition. As a result, they can be effectively used as internal radiographic markers
when applied to the subcutaneous tissues and underlying muscle fascia after tumor resection. These metallic markers can assist
the radiation oncologist in determining the margins of the surgical field and the appropriate region to irradiate postoperatively.
Vascular staplers Vascular clips are an invaluable method to rapidly ligate small bleeding vessels during surgical procedures. Improvements
in the design of the disposable applicators have made their clinical use much more "user friendly." The Kendall/USSC Surgiclip
units, for example, currently offered have an automatic staple loader to facilitate rapid placement of flat vascular clips.
Photo 2: A ligate-divide-staple is ideal to use for splenectomies.
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Vascular clips are particularly useful for those procedures where multiple ligations are required, or there is a need to secure
vessels in recessed body regions. Common examples include: forelimb and hindlimb amputations, splenectomies, adrenal tumor
removal, thoracic surgery and eye enucleations. Most vascular stapling devices place a single linear clip at a time. A ligate-divide-staple
(LDS) applies two curved staples to a vessel while a cutting blade in the disposable cartridge divides the vessel simultaneously.
As a result, the LDS unit is particularly useful in performing splenectomies quickly and efficiently. It is considered the
preferred method of performing splenectomies at Angell (Photo 2, p. 4).
Linear stapling devices Linear staplers apply two to four rows of fine titanium staples in a staggered configuration. Thoracoabdominal (TA) staplers
apply two rows of staples; the exception is the TA-30 V-3 cartridge that seals vascular pedicles with a triple row of staples
(for added security). Gastrointestinal anastomosis (GIA) staplers apply four rows of staples. The most popular GIA cartridges
contain a cutting blade that divides between the second and third rows of staples during application. As a result, the GIA
and TA staplers have somewhat different uses.
Photo 4: Gastrointestinal anastomosis staplers can be effective in resecting large areas of compromised gastric tissue.
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TA staplers are extremely effective in partial or complete lung lobectomies; they are the method of choice for these two procedures
(Photo 3). TA staplers are also very useful for the following veterinary surgical techniques: partial gastrectomy, closure
of gastrotomy incisions, partial or complete liver lobectomies, partial splenectomy, closure of enterotomy incisions, resection
of atrial appendage tumors, removal of esophageal diverticula, ovariohysterectomy in large dogs, closure of large vascular
pedicles (e.g. nephrectomy, neoplasms).
In combination with the GIA stapler, functional end-to-end anastomosis of the intestinal tract can be performed in dogs and
the larger feline patients. Similarly, they also can be employed for cholecystoduodenostomy, cholecystojejunostomy and the
Bilroth II procedures.
Photo 3: Thoracoabdominal staplers apply two rows of staples and are best used with partial or complete lung lobectomies.
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The GIA stapler alone is particularly effective in resecting large areas of compromised gastric tissue. In those cases of
gastric necrosis secondary to gastric volvulus/torsion, the GIA stapler is the preferred method to efficiently remove these
areas rapidly, while minimizing the risk of intraoperative contamination. Following removal, an inverting continuous suture
pattern is applied over the staple line to complete the procedure (Photo 4).
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