Is knee surgery cost effective?
Unfortunately, many of the dogs undergoing surgical repair for knee injuries do not improve. Insurance companies have been keeping statistics to evaluate the wisdom of paying for these repairs and find that only 20% of dogs improve within 6 months following any of the surgical knee repairs. Because of this low rate of improvement, some veterinarians and insurance companies have begun questioning the wisdom of performing knee surgeries, especially the TPLO. Insurance companies are focusing on the TPLO because this surgery increased the average cost of a dog’s annual vet visits nearly doubled in 4 years–from $300 in 2000 to $575 in 2004.
