Cardiothoracic Surgery at the RVC

The RVC is Europe's leading centre for pet heart surgery, having been at the forefront for more than a decade.

We are pleased to announce that from 12th April 2021 we will be recommencing the Cardiothoracic Surgery Programme. We will be handling a limited number of cases and in the first instance these will be patients who are already on our waiting list. Owners of the pets we will be able to treat will be contacted individually – please do not contact us directly at this time. As time goes on, we hope to be able to return to managing at least our previous numbers of cases, in the meantime, we would appreciate your patience and support in our reintroduction of this service. Given current restrictions on international travel to the UK, together with information provided to us by Public Health England on the likely future status of these restrictions until at least the winter, unfortunately for the time being we will only be able to offer places to dogs currently residing in the UK. We will continue to review and monitor this situation in line with current protocols and working practices on our campuses

If you have further queries, please contact qmhaheartsurgery@rvc.ac.uk.

The first open heart surgery at the RVC took place in 2005. It was performed by Professor of Small Animal Surgery Dan Brockman. In 2016, the RVC became the first veterinary service in the world to successfully treat a dog's stenotic (narrowed) tricuspid valve with open heart surgery. The Labrador patient, Mabel, suffered from congenital tricuspid dysplasia. Dysplasia of the tricuspid valve can cause either leakage of blood or stenosis.

Heart valve dysplasia can affect the aortic, pulmonary, mitral or tricuspid valves of the heart. The most common one to affect dogs is mitral valve disease and the RVC is one of a few centres in world to correct the condition with surgery.