RCVS Knowledge shares third Canine Cruciate Registry report
There has been a 25 per cent increase in contributors to the registry.
RCVS Knowledge has published the third annual benchmarking report of its Canine Cruciate Registry (CCR).
Its latest statistics reveal a 25 per cent increase in the number of contributors in the past 12 months, sharing data on the success of different surgical techniques.
The system now has 593 veterinary professionals registered to share canine cruciate surgery data. This is an increase of 119 professionals since the previous annual report.
As a result of this increase, the number of overall cases of CCR on the platform have risen 40 per cent from 1,319 to 1,849.
The benchmarking report found that 142 different dog breeds were represented by the data. Labrador retrievers were the most common breed, representing 9.4 per cent of all cases reported.
Once again, osteotomies proved to be the most commonly reported procedure. The proportion of tibial plateau levelling osteotomies has increased by 6.1 per cent since the 2024 report.
Usage of prophylactic post-operative antibiotics in reported cases has shown a decrease of 19.3 per cent since 2021.
However, while the degree of cranial cruciate ligament tear was reported in 89.5 per cent of patients, this is slightly reduced compared to 2024’s 92.1 per cent statistic. In 2025, over two-thirds recorded were complete tears.
Many veterinary professionals have said that the data has supported their communications with clients in practice. It has also supported anti-microbial resistance targets, with one veterinary surgeon changing their practice after seeing others nor prescribe post-operative antibiotics.
Heather Eastham, a veterinary surgeon who uses the service, said: “I now email all clients in advance of the date of their potential surgery to give them specific information about the surgical procedure or options of surgical procedure we may discuss and send them links to the very informative pages on the CCR website.
“By the time I see them on the day of surgery, most clients have already enrolled. This has cut down the length of my pre-op consults and clients arrive far more clued up as to what is going to happen and already engaged with the registry.”
Mark Morton, the CCR’s clinical lead, added: “This year has seen the launch of a new complications dashboard for clinicians, allowing benchmarking against the rest of the registry dataset. I’d encourage you to use this and find where and how you can improve.
“Even if your data puts you well ahead of the benchmark, you can still make a powerful contribution to the CCR. By sharing your data and your successes, you can help us build a strong evidence base that'll mean we can all improve together.”
The full report can be read on the RCVS Knowledge website.
Image © Shutterstock.com/David Herraez Calzada
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