Peripatetic surgeons urge peers to join them in building the evidence base for canine cruciate surgery

A group of surgeons from the peripatetic orthopaedic service Rata Vet Surgery are urging their peers to follow their lead by contributing their data to the RCVS Knowledge Canine Cruciate Registry (CCR).

The RCVS Knowledge Canine Cruciate Registry (CCR) is the first of its kind in veterinary medicine. It aims to improve patient outcomes for dogs undergoing cruciate surgery by collecting data on these procedures to help the professions understand which surgical techniques are most effective. Anyone working in orthopaedics who carries out canine cruciate surgery can sign up and contribute their findings to the CCR.

Lucy Ashton RVN, a veterinary nurse at Rata Vet Surgery, said: “I would strongly encourage practices to sign up [to the CCR]… We think [it] will really help to demonstrate to owners that the veterinary professions are taking an active role in enhancing the care we provide to their pets.”

Rata Vets has ten surgeons contributing their data. After signing up in 2021 following an initial consultation with CCR Clinical Lead Mark Morton and RCVS Knowledge Quality Improvement Project Manager, Amelia Poole, they quickly made the CCR a part of their daily operations.

Despite being one of the few peripatetic surgeries that has surgeons participating in the CCR, they have found it is “very easy to integrate into the day-to-day running of the business,” says Ashton. “Submitting the initial assessments and surgical reports to the registry is straightforward and the prompts help to keep the process efficient and streamlined."

She was also keen to stress that the flexibility of the registry makes it easy to incorporate into your working day, saying: “The ability to assign delegates to surgeons allows nurses or other members of the team to enter the reports on behalf of the surgeon.”

So why would a peripatetic surgeon want to submit their data to the CCR? In Ashton’s own words; “for us as a team it has helped provide a much more efficient approach to clinical auditing and the feedback from clients has been good to see, particularly as we often lose contact with them following the initial surgical booking… Clients are often keen to take part and it takes very little time from the consult to explain the scheme.”

Additionally, she says: “The volume of information that we can gain from the [RCVS Knowledge Canine Cruciate Registry] is fantastic,” said Ashton. ''With the patient outcome data and client feedback we, as a group, gain a real insight into the effectiveness of our interventions - as well as benchmarking our complications, when they occur, against published data.''

“We understand that there are usually complex requirements that need to be considered when signing up to contribute as a peripatetic surgeon”, says Ashley Doorly, Head of Quality Improvement at RCVS Knowledge, “This is why we provide personal support to help surgeons get set up and start contributing their data”.

“Our only challenge was to include the list of our referring practices for each surgeon – a challenge exclusive to peripatetic practice,” said Lucy. “The CCR team were incredibly helpful in setting this up. They are prompt with all of their replies and happy to help with any queries.”

To get involved with the Canine Cruciate Registry, you can sign up online and start contributing data in minutes: https://caninecruciateregistry.org

If you’d like to meet with us to discuss any questions you may have about joining the registry, please get in touch here: https://caninecruciateregistry.org/contact/