Treatment of peroneal paralysis with transposition of vastus lateralis muscle in calves.

This study aimed to clinically evaluate the results achieved by using tendon transposition to treat postinjection peroneal paralysis in calves. The study material consisted of 23 calves in all of which the clinical history indicated the problem had occurred within 1-3 days of intramuscular injection. Each patient was administered medical treatment for three weeks. After that, a decision was made to perform tendon transposition in all the subjects because their prognosis was estimated to be poor. The owners of five of the calves did not agree to the operation, and so, medical treatment was continued. Following intrathecal anaesthesia, the vastus lateralis muscle was dissected at the insertion, and the musculus (m) extensor (ext) digitalis (dig) longus and m fibularis tertius were dissected at the origin in 18 calves. The tendon ends were joined by using the locking loop suture technique in the 18 calves. Follow-up after two to three months revealed hind limb use in all surgically treated calves, while the medically treated calves had to be slaughtered because of lameness and decubitus. The results of the present study suggest that the peroneal paralysis of calves can be successfully treated by a tendon transposition technique.