TheraVet announced the completion of recruitment in a multicentric prospective study assessing BIOCERA-VET in revision surgery of distal radioulnar fracture (DRUF) in toy and miniature dog breeds. As announced, the Company continues its focus on developing the market by enlarging the use of BIOCERA-VET in clinical indications with unmet medical needs: revision surgery of distal radioulnar fracture in toy and miniature dogs is a complex procedure in a challenging anatomical and biomechanical environment. Applications within other clinical indications and targeting other breeds of dog could emerge once the benefits provided by BIOCERA-VET have been validated in this indication. DRUF is the third more common fracture in dogs. In toy and miniature breeds, these fractures representing 120.000 cases/year can occur after minor trauma, probably due to the small size of the bones. A high complication rate up to 75% is associated to DRUF repair, depending on the surgical procedure. The
predisposition of these breeds to major complications has been attributed to anatomical reasons as spare soft tissue coverage and decreased vascular density at the level of the distal radius. Also, biomechanics plays a role, whereas minimal bone surface contact after reduction is found when there is a small size cross-section area of the distal radius and a short oblique or transverse orientation of the fracture. If DRUF osteosynthesis is technically and biomechanically difficult for the reasons stated above, revision surgery becomes an even bigger challenge. In the worst scenario, amputation may be eventually required. So far, only few records evaluated revision surgery in DRUF with major complications. In this context, a prospective study assessing BIOCERA-VET used as bone graft during revision surgical procedure in DRUF after the occurrence of a major complication (e.g., delayed union, non-union, mal-union, osteopenia (refracture) and implant failure) in toy and miniature dogs, was conducted in 4 centers in Italy, Ireland and Belgium.BIOCERA-VET was used instead of autograft, which is considered as the gold standard, in order to overcome the limitation of its availability, especially in toy and miniature dogs and also to provide strong biomechanical support due to its unique mechanical resistance. The recruitment was completed in September 2023 with 6 patients included in a 6-month period (very low rate of patients recruitment has been previously described in literature), stressing the strong interest of vet surgeons for this approach overcoming the shortcomings of the reference procedure.