Barbed suture gastropexy may shorten GDV surgery time in dogs

CURRENT BRIEF VERSION: A new retrospective cohort study from Cornell University Hospital for Animals suggests that open right-sided barbed suture gastropexy may save time without compromising short-term outcomes in dogs treated surgically for gastric dilatation-volvulus (GDV). In 121 client-owned dogs, investigators compared barbed suture gastropexy (58 dogs) with standard right-sided incisional gastropexy (63 dogs) and found lower procedure time when the gastropexy was performed as the sole procedure, 53.3 minutes versus 62.6 minutes, while perioperative mortality, surgical complications, recurrence of GDV, and gastric dilatation without volvulus did not differ significantly between groups. The paper was published in Veterinary Surgery after first appearing online on October 29, 2025. (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

Why it matters: For veterinary surgeons and emergency teams, the finding speaks to a familiar tradeoff in GDV cases: every minute in anesthesia matters, but durability matters more. This study suggests barbed suture gastropexy can offer a modest time advantage in open GDV surgery without an obvious short-term penalty, at least in this retrospective dataset. That fits with a broader evidence pattern in small-animal surgery: a recent Veterinary Evidence review found only weak evidence favoring either Gambee or simple interrupted closure after canine enterotomy, with technique choice still largely left to surgeon preference, even though simpler patterns were often faster. The Cornell authors also reported postoperative gastrointestinal signs in 23% of dogs regardless of technique, underscoring that gastropexy choice doesn't eliminate the broader postoperative management burden in these patients. Existing guidance from the American College of Veterinary Surgeons continues to emphasize that GDV remains a life-threatening emergency with risks including arrhythmias, shock, hemorrhage, and reperfusion injury, even after successful derotation and fixation. Separate emergency medicine data also show why individualized assessment matters: in one 100-dog GDV series, traditional acid-base analysis was normal in 37% of dogs at presentation despite frequent hyperlactatemia and mixed acid-base disturbances. (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

What to watch: Whether longer-term follow-up and prospective studies confirm that the time savings with barbed suture hold up without late failures, especially since recurrence after any gastropexy can occur years later. More broadly, this is another reminder that in veterinary surgery, faster or technically different closure methods do not automatically translate into better long-term outcomes without stronger evidence. (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)