Arthroscopy in food animal practice

Arthroscopy can be an effective technique for diagnosis and treatment of various orthopedic disorders in cattle, including septic arthritis and osteochondrosis. Cost of equipment and surgery may be prohibitive for some individuals, yet the techniques of arthroscopic surgery are proven efficacious when applied to cattle. Arthroscopic techniques may also be quite useful in the evaluation and treatment of the same disorders in sheep, goats, and camillids. The technology remains the same and applicability rests with financial constraints and the physical aspects of specific species and joints. We speculate that arthroscopy would be quite useful for exploration and treatment of the larger joints and other selected joints of these species.