ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Surgery
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1618435
Surgical treatment and outcomes in feline aortic thromboembolism: a retrospective study of 13 cats
Provisionally accepted
- 1Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China
- 2AMC Riverside Referral Center Animal Hospital, Nanjing, China
- 3Nanjing Agricultural University Veterinary Teaching Hospital, Nanjing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Objectives: To evaluate the survival and survivor characteristics in cats diagnosed with feline aortic thromboembolism (FATE) who underwent surgical aortic thrombectomy. Methods: Medical records from 2021 to 2023 were retrospectively reviewed for cats diagnosed with FATE that underwent surgical aortic thrombectomy. Data collected included signalment, medical history, clinical examination findings, laboratory parameters before and after surgery, the interval from FATE onset to surgery, treatments administered, survival to discharge, and recurrence or long-term outcomes in discharged cats. Results: Thirteen client-owned cats met the inclusion criteria. Common postoperative laboratory abnormalities observed during hospitalization included azotemia (n = 8), anemia (n = 4), hyperkalemia (n = 4), and elevated alanine aminotransferase (n = 3). After surgery, 53.8% of the cats survived to discharge, with 71.4% showing complete recovery of hind limb motor function. Among the discharged cats, two (28.6%) were confirmed deceased during follow-up, while five (71.4%) were lost to follow-up. The median follow-up duration was 37 days (14–498). Recurrence of FATE occurred in two cats (28.6%) at 77 and 493 days postoperatively; both were successfully managed with medical treatment and survived to discharge again. Cats that survived had significantly lower preoperative neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratios (P = 0.033), postoperative serum potassium levels (P = 0.037), and postoperative blood urea nitrogen concentrations (P = 0.037) compared with non-survivors. Conclusions and relevance: Cats undergoing surgical aortic thrombectomy for FATE showed a 53.8% survival rate to discharge, with 71.4% of survivors achieving full recovery of limb motor function. Surgical aortic thrombectomy may be considered as a treatment option for cats with FATE, particularly when timely presentation allows for early intervention.
Keywords: surgical aortic thrombectomy, Thrombosis, survival-to-discharge rate, Azotemia, Neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio
Received: 26 Apr 2025; Accepted: 24 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Zhou, Liu, Peng and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Jingwen Peng, jingwenp@njau.edu.cn
Meng Li, limeng@njau.edu.cn
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.