Abdominal computed tomography and exploratory laparotomy have high agreement in dogs with surgical disease

To compare the results of abdominal CT with exploratory laparotomy in the dog.

100 client-owned dogs from 1 academic institution.

Medical records were searched for dogs that had undergone a preoperative abdominal CT scan read by a board-certified veterinary radiologist followed by an exploratory laparotomy. CT and surgical reports were compared.

The overall agreement between abdominal CT scan and exploratory laparotomy in all cases was 97%. Overall, there was no evidence that proportion agreement differed on the basis of body condition score, time interval between CT and surgery, or oncologic versus nononcologic disease.

Abdominal CT scan read by a board-certified diplomate is a sensitive presurgical diagnostic tool for surgical abdominal disease in the dog. When performing a specific abdominal surgery, it is acceptable for the surgeon to fully explore the abdomen or forego it for a smaller approach to the organ of interest if an abdominal CT was performed prior.