Standards, Health and Genetics in Dogs - Chapter II - Elbow dysplasia - Margarita Durán (Uruguay) 1.0.0

Abstract - Elbow dysplasia (ED) is a multifac­torial disease that appears early in life and affects mainly medium and large dogs causing limitation in movement and gait due to alterations at the level of the joint surfaces.

Under the name of ED four diseases are grouped: ununited anconeal process (UAP), osteochondrosis (OC), fracture of the medial coronoid process (FMC) and incongruity (INC).

These different pathologies produce cartilage wear that inevitably will manifest as arthrosis.

Alterations in skeletal development and biomechanical changes, trauma, imbalanced diets or excess food act unfavourably and may be responsible for some of the forms of elbow dysplasia.

The radiological diagnosis of elbow dysplasia is difficult due to the overlap of the bony parts and the possible simultaneous presence of different pathologies in the same joint.

The International Elbow Working Group based the diagnosis on the presence of primary lesions and / or osteoarthrosis.