Cat received knee replacement surgery

By Michael Baggs | February 1, 2012 7:00 AM

Brave Cyrano, a ten year old tabby who lives with his owners in Carolina, has become the first cat in America to receive knee-replacement surgery, to fuse a prosthetic limb to the remains of a cancer stricken leg at the knee.

Denis Marcellin-Little who performed the operation at North Carolina State University using materials commonly used in human knee operations, said that it had been the most complex implant the university had ever made and was likely the most complex implant ever performed on a pet. The parts were formed from plastic and cobalt chromium.

Surgeon Denis practiced the procedure four times on plastic models before the six and a half hour long surgery, because while similar procedures are relatively more common with dogs, cat bones are much the smaller.

Owners Sandra Lerner and Len Bosack exemplify how much a pet can mean to a family, having paid out twenty thousand dollars to make up the shortfall for the procedure, which was mostly paid for with donated materials and time. Sandra said "He's my child. And if it were your child, would you begrudge the money? I have a personal philosophy that people are, at best, equal with the other inhabitants of the planet. And I'm very, very grateful that I have the money and able to do it."

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