The Veterinary Surgery Podcast is a first of its kind podcast that focuses on surgical advance in veterinary medicine with host Dr. Jolle Kirpensteijn. Jolle is a diplomate of the American and European Colleges of Veterinary Surgery and has lots of experience in veterinary surgery. Jolle will interview fellow surgeons, review articles that are recently published and will discuss 2 books he will be working on in the near future. You can also follow Jolle on his Global Veterinary Surgery Facebook or Instagram pages.
Does lorazepam work in cats with urinary obstruction with Dr. Jody Lulich
This podcast episode featured Dr. Jolle interviewing Dr. Jody Lulich about their recent study published in JAVMA titled "Lorazepam Reduces Recurrence of Urethral Obstruction in Male Cats." Dr. Lulich, who is head of the Minnesota Urolith Center that analyzes approximately 100,000 stone submissions annually, discussed their groundbreaking prospective randomized double-blind placebo-controlled study involving 80 cats. The study found that cats treated with lorazepam (a skeletal muscle relaxant) and a therapeutic urinary diet had zero re-obstructions compared to 14-15% recurrence rate in the placebo group, demonstrating the effectiveness of a multimodal approach including diet modification, pain medication, and environmental enrichment. Dr. Lulich explained that surgical removal of urinary stones actually leaves stones in about 20% of cases, making medical dissolution a more compassionate and effective treatment option. The discussion also covered the historical shift away from surgical intervention for struvite stones, the limitations of previous smooth muscle relaxant drugs like prazosin, and the significant cultural challenge of changing veterinary practices despite clear evidence supporting non-surgical approaches.
Article: https://avmajournals.avma.org/view/journals/javma/264/9/javma.26.01.0045.xml
The Veterinary Surgery Podcast is a first of its kind podcast that focuses on surgical advance in veterinary medicine with host Dr. Jolle Kirpensteijn. Jolle is a diplomate of the American and European Colleges of Veterinary Surgery and has lots of experience in veterinary surgery. Jolle will interview fellow surgeons, review articles that are recently published and will discuss 2 books he will be working on in the near future. You can also follow Jolle on his Global Veterinary Surgery Facebook or Instagram pages.
17 Sept 2026
Skin fold flaps for the rescue!
This Week's Episode: A Look Back — 1995 and the Skin Fold Advancement Flap
This week we travel back three decades to revisit a foundational paper in small animal reconstructive surgery: Geraldine Hunt's 1995 description of the skin fold advancement flap for closing large sternal and inguinal wounds in dogs and cats. Before this technique was described, surgeons facing large ventral defects in these regions had limited options beyond skin grafts or leaving wounds to heal by second intention — both often impractical in mobile, high-tension areas like the groin and chest.
Hunt's insight was elegant: the flank fold (near the inguinal region) and the elbow fold (near the sternum) are natural double-layered skin folds with a robust subdermal blood supply, fed by the deep circumflex iliac artery and lateral thoracic artery respectively. By dividing the fold's attachments to the limb, "unfolding" it into a single U-shaped flap, and advancing it into the defect, surgeons could achieve reliable, tension-free coverage using local tissue — with a donor site simple enough to close primarily. Nearly 30 years later, this technique remains a workhorse in general and specialty practice, and it laid the groundwork for later refinements, including Hunt's own 2001 follow-up extending the approach to proximal limb and trunk defects more broadly.
Reference:
Hunt GB. Skin fold advancement flaps for closing large sternal and inguinal wounds in cats and dogs. Veterinary Surgery. 1995;24(2):172–175. Link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1532950x (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/1532950x)
The Veterinary Surgery Podcast is a first of its kind podcast that focuses on surgical advance in veterinary medicine with host Dr. Jolle Kirpensteijn. Jolle is a diplomate of the American and European Colleges of Veterinary Surgery and has lots of experience in veterinary surgery. Jolle will interview fellow surgeons, review articles that are recently published and will discuss 2 books he will be working on in the near future. You can also follow Jolle on his Global Veterinary Surgery Facebook or Instagram pages.
10 Sept 2026
Complications in reconstructive surgery and other news!
Dr Jolle is back with a short episode because he will be in NYC this week. He is discussing Chapter 10 of his new reconstruction book, focusing on complications in reconstructive surgery. He also looks at some news about veterinary surgery in the various general journals. More info about his book: https://www.routledge.com/Colour-Atlas-of-Reconstructive-Techniques-in-the-Dog-and-Cat/Kirpensteijn-Stanley-terHaar/p/book/9780367029999
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Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
4 ratings
Spotify
5.0 / 5
5 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 30 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
27
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
81
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