Gators Help Bulldogs Walk - At UF Veterinary College

November 6, 1996

GAINESVILLE—The University of Florida Gators may have stopped the Georgia Bulldogs in their tracks Saturday, but UF veterinarians prefer to help bulldogs get back on their feet.

Just ask them about Alexandra, an 11-month-old English bulldog, who was paralyzed when her owners, Connie and Stanley Ryan, of Ocala, brought her to the UF Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital in July. Now she’s walking, thanks to innovative surgery that involved bone fusion — the melding of several bones into one — combined with the use of titanium mesh implants and a bone regeneration substance called Bioglass and marketed under the trade name Consil.

Dr. Roger Clemmons, associate professor of neurology at UF, performed the surgery on Alexandra and continues to work with Dr. Rob Parker, associate professor of small animal surgery, to correct other unrelated orthopedic problems Alexandra still has.

Alexandra’s surgery involved the first-ever use of titanium implants to correct a congenital neurological deficiency such as she had, although Clemmons has used Consil in other types of neurosurgeries during the past two years.

“The result is a happy bulldog puppy with a straight spine who has regained full neurological function and a playful attitude,” Clemmons says.

A formulation of Bioglass, the first man-made substance to bond with bone and an invention of former UF materials science professor Larry Hench, Consil provides veterinarians with a tool that appears to accelerate the healing process after certain types of neurosurgery. The product works by speeding the rate at which bone fusion occurs, thereby reducing recuperation time.

While available for human use for the past four years — primarily in dental applications to repair bone defects caused by periodontal disease — veterinary applications of Bioglass are new, said Dr. Robert Wishner, manager of product development for Baltimore-based Nutramax Laboratories, Inc. The company that holds the patents for Bioglass, U.S. Biomaterials, Inc., has sublicensed Nutramax to market veterinary applications of the product.

In Alexandra’s case, the problem was a congenital curvature of the spine known as hemivertebra.

“It happened very quickly,” said Connie Ryan. “She had been completely normal, but within four days, she couldn’t walk at all.”

Clemmons said the conventional treatment for hemivertebra is to do nothing, in which case a dog remains paralyzed for life. Faced with this option, many pet owners choose to euthanize the animal.

Instead, Clemmons approached the Ryans for their approval to try the totally different technique. The Ryans said they were game, and the UF surgery team kicked into action.

In an eight-hour operation, surgeons drilled away the bones at the base of Alexandra’s spinal cord and replaced them with a tube of titanium — a ring made of thick, screened mesh. The tube provided a framework for Alexandra’s own bone to grow through and around in the weeks following surgery.

“Basically, we removed part of her backbone, straightened what remained and replaced the missing part of the backbone with the titanium mesh, ” Clemmons said. “The titanium connected the remaining bones to give them structural stability. Alexandra did the rest, but we accelerated her bone growth through the tube by using Consil.”

As for Alexandra, her owners say she’s bullish about her recovery.

“She’s doing real good,” said Connie Ryan. “She’s a strong little dog. She gets up and goes wherever she wants to.”

Consil has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for use in veterinary dentistry and will appear on the market this month. Nutramax will initiate an orthopedic research program this spring to focus on the potential uses of Consil in veterinary orthopedics.

“Clemmons’ work has been successful at the investigative level,” Wishner said. “The hope is that this material will be the first synthetic that can be used in veterinary trauma surgery as a replacement for bone.