Surgical castration in dogs: does the incision approach influence postoperative recovery?

PICO question In male dogs undergoing surgical castration, does a pre-scrotal approach in comparison to a scrotal approach lead to a superior recovery, in terms of duration of postoperative pain and/or reduced post-operative complications? Clinical bottom line Category of research Treatment. Number and type of study designs reviewed Two prospective clinical trials were critically appraised. Strength of evidence Weak. Outcomes reported Woodruff et al. (2015) evaluated postoperative recovery in 206 dogs following surgical castration using a scrotal incision in comparison to 231 dogs using a pre-scrotal approach. Complications observed in order of frequency, included: incisional swelling; haemorrhage; pain; and self-trauma, however, apart from self-trauma, complications were not influenced by incision location. Dogs castrated using a scrotal approach had reduced odds of self-trauma (OR: 0.51, P = 0.04, 95% CI 0.27–0.97). Moreover, mean duration of surgery was faster for the scrotal versus the pre-scrotal approach (3.6 minutes, P