VCA ASEC is the largest surgical group in Southern California, in business for over 30 years. With multiple, board-certified surgeons on-site 7 days a week for consultations and procedures, VCA ASEC provides your pet with an unmatched depth of expertise. VCA ASEC’s surgeons employ the latest technology, for all types of surgery, including: orthopedic, soft tissue, thoracic, neurosurgical and oncologic procedures. Our surgeons have published articles in veterinary journals for over 25 years.

Here are just a few of the reasons why over 1600 veterinarians refer their challenging surgical cases to VCA ASEC:

• Multiple surgeons can scrub in on each case, minimizing operative and anesthetic time and enhancing patient care.
• Multiple specialists means multiple perspectives and opinions instantly available for any given case.
• Unmatched depth of expertise: VCA ASEC’s team of surgeons has many decades of combined experience. What one surgeon might have seen once or twice, our large group of surgeons will typically have seen many times.
• We can take your phone calls. There is usually one surgeon available to get on the phone at anytime.
• Surgeons are available 24/7/365 for emergency cases requiring immediate surgery.

Surgery Department Services:

• Soft Tissue Surgery
• Reconstructive Surgery
• Cardiac Surgery
• Oncologic (Cancer) Surgery
• Neurosurgery
• Stem Cell Therapy
• Myelography
• T.P.L.O. (Tibial Plateau Leveling Osteotomy)
• Orthopedic Surgery
• Video Laparoscopy
• Video Thoracoscopy
• Video Arthroscopy
• Laparoscopic Gastropexy
• Laparoscopic Ovariohysterectomy 

 

Common Surgical Conditions:

• Bone Fractures
• Lumbosacral Disease (Cauda Equina Syndrome)
• Torn Cranial Cruciate Ligament
• Tumors

 

The Surgery Department is open from 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Typically, we admit cases in the morning hours, so that diagnostic work, x-rays, or other tests can be performed during the day. Although we routinely schedule surgeries Monday through Friday, the surgeons are able to perform emergency surgery 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Your pet should not receive any food after midnight the night before evaluation, so that the stomach will be empty in case sedation or anesthesia is required for any diagnostic work or surgery.

Many diagnostic procedures (such as CT scans and orthopedic x-rays) require sedation of the patient; these patients are usually able to go home the same afternoon.

Some diagnostic procedures (such as a myelogram) and all surgeries require general anesthesia. These patients will stay overnight so their recovery can be monitored by our overnight I.C.U. doctors. Discharge hours for these patients are between 12:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. the following day.

VCA ASEC’s specialists provide minimally-invasive procedures 7 days a week. Minimally-invasive procedures speed healing and provide optimal patient outcomes. Our specialists perform and teach these techniques regularly.

Minimally Invasive Abdominal Procedures:

• Exploratory laparoscopy
• Biopsies: gastrointestinal (full-thickness), liver, kidney, spleen, pancreas, lymph nodes, masses
• Laser Ectopic Ureter Ablation
• Ovariohysterectomy & ovariectomy
• Cryptorchidectomy
• Laparoscopic & endoscopic Gastropexy
• Gastrotomy
• Percutaneous laser cystic calculi ablation
• Cystotomy
• Nephrectomy

 

Arthroscopic Procedures:

• Shoulders, elbows, stifles, hips, tarsi & carpi

 

Cardiologic Procedures:

• PDA coil embolization
• Balloon valvuloplasty
• Pacemaker implantation

 

Stents & Interventional Radiology:

• Tracheal Collapse
• Ureteral obstruction (calculi, neoplasia)
• Urethral obstruction (calculi, neoplasia)
• Esophageal stricture (stent or balloon dilatation)
• Colonic obstruction (stent or balloon dilatation)
• Nasopharyngeal stenosis

 

Minimally Invasive Thoracic Procedures:

• Lung lobectomy (neoplasia; spontaneous pneumothorax)
• Non-infiltrative thymoma removal
• Thoracic duct ligation for chylothorax
• Pericardiectomy
• Biopsies: lung, pleural, & hilar lesions
• Pyothorax exploratory

 

Oncologic Applications:

• Minimally invasive exploratory & biopsies