Miller et al: Complications and outcome following staphylectomy and folded flap palatoplasty in dogs with brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome
Veterinary Surgery 8, 2024

🔍 Key Findings

• FFP resulted in longer median surgery (75 min) and anesthesia (111 min) durations than S (51 min and 80 min, respectively).
• No significant difference in anesthetic complications, regurgitation, aspiration pneumonia, or hospitalization time between S and FFP.
• Major complications were rare (4%) and equally distributed between procedures; included tracheostomy and euthanasia due to severe airway disease.
• Postoperative oxygen use was common (52% of dogs) but not significantly different between procedures.
• FFP dogs more often had laryngeal collapse (especially Grade 1: 68% vs. 32% in S dogs).
• Most dogs (85%) had concurrent nares surgery, with caudal wedge resection more frequent in FFP dogs.
• Few dogs needed revision soft palate surgery (7/124 total); similar between groups.
• Postoperative clinical signs improved across both procedures; regurgitation was the most persistent sign post-op.