Is dog laparoscopic surgery curative?

It depends on what we're trying to accomplish. If we're talking about a spay, laparoscopic surgery is curative compared to traditional surgery. It's completely effective at removing all ovarian tissue and getting the job done. Another thing that we would use this equipment for is a liver biopsy, for example, where it won't be curative because it's a diagnostic tool. We use the equipment to access the liver with a minimally invasive technique rather than opening the abdomen up, but it's not curative in the sense that we're curing the disease. We're getting tissue samples from the liver so that we can try to get an answer as to what's going on inside. That would require us to do major surgery if we didn't have this laparoscopic equipment.

So it changes the way that we approach a lot of these common issues we come across. Whether it is something as routine as spaying a dog, removing the ovaries, or something more complicated, like a pet with significant liver problems. It's maybe not even significant liver issues at the moment, but there may be evidence in the blood suggestive of something problematic. We were often left guessing before we had liver biopsies. Performing biopsies using this technique that doesn't require major surgery provides an opportunity to get a definitive diagnosis. That's the hope with the biopsies. We can treat that disease directly. It's not a cure, but we can manage it more successfully with a definitive diagnosis, which you don't always get without a biopsy. This equipment and minimally invasive technique allow us to operate more efficiently and perform appropriate therapy directed at the underlying problem with less trauma for the pet.