03048-A: Thoracoscopic-Guided Autologous Blood Injection for Treatment of Primary Spontaneous Pneumothorax
Grant Status: Open
One Health: Yes
Abstract
Primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) is defined as the presence of air within the pleural space without an obvious precipitating factor. This disease presents as a life-threatening emergency causing shortness of breath, exercise intolerance, and possible collapse or sudden death, affecting an average of 13 dogs per year at NCSU. Although the overall prevalence is fairly low, primary spontaneous pneumothorax is of great importance due to the impact on the individual dog. Treatment of this disease in dogs remains challenging. The current standard of care dictates full thoracic exploration via an invasive and costly surgery followed by resection of lung tissue containing the lesions that cause primary spontaneous pneumothorax (known as pulmonary bullae or blebs). This surgical approach requires splitting the sternum or breastbone and weeks of post-operative recovery. In contrast, video-assisted scoping (thoracoscopy) of the chest is preferred to open surgery for the treatment of spontaneous pneumothorax in human medicine. Thoracoscopy is associated with fewer complications and reduced post-operative pain, making it a desirable alternative to the current standard in veterinary medicine, but this treatment still requires resection of lung tissue which can be challenging to perform minimally invasively in dogs. In people, injecting a patient’s own blood (known as autologous blood injection) into leaking lung tissue has been demonstrated to seal leaks caused by emphysema or surgical resection of lung tissue. This technique, however, has not been evaluated for treatment of primary spontaneous pneumothorax in people or in dogs. Thus, this pilot study aims to prospectively evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of thoracoscopic-guided autologous blood injection to treat primary spontaneous pneumothorax in dogs. Researchers hypothesize that thoracoscopic-guided autologous blood injection will effectively fill and seal pulmonary bullae and blebs in dogs, resolving air leakage and facilitating minimally invasive treatment of primary spontaneous pneumothorax in dogs. If shown to be effective in dogs, autologous blood injection may also have important potential for treatment of primary spontaneous pneumothorax in people.
Publication(s)
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