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Daisy had been experiencing on-and-off jaw pain for quite some time after running into a post over a year ago. She found it challenging to pick up small objects, open her mouth wide, or chew on the right side of her mouth. The team at her primary care practice tried different pain relief and steroid medications, but nothing brought her complete relief. She was therefore referred to The Ralph for further investigations.

Daisy was initially seen by our Internal Medicine team, who recommended a CT scan. The scan revealed a lesion close to Daisy’s temporomandibular joint, also known as the jaw joint. Fine needle aspirates confirmed that the lesion was a type of bone tumour called a multilobular osteochondrosarcoma (MLO). Although these tumours can spread to other parts of the body, the CT scan showed no visible metastases in the lungs. Surgical removal is the preferred treatment for these tumours, so Daisy was transferred to our Surgery team for the procedure 🦴

A week later, Daisy underwent surgery with the assistance of a 3D printer, which was used to create a model of her skull from the CT images. This innovative approach allows our surgeons to perform the procedure with added precision. 🖨️ The model took sixteen hours to print because it was a high detail full skull.  This one wasn’t printed in autoclavable resin, but if it was required to be used during surgery, we could have printed it so that it could have been sterilised.

The procedure was successful, and the surgery team managed to remove the mass while preserving the jaw joint (without damaging or removing any part of the jaw joint). The mass was sent for histological analysis, which confirmed complete excision a multilobular osteochondrosarcoma. These types of tumours are classified as either low, intermediate or high grade, and in Daisy’s case hers was classified as an intermediate grade. No further treatment for this tumour is needed, however it has been recommended that Daisy returns several months after surgery for another CT scan to ensure no further spread of the tumour. 

Daisy recovered well from her surgery and was discharged a few days later on pain relief. She has been back for a few recheck appointments now and is doing really well!

✨Bonus content ✨ For a heartwarming insight into Daisy’s bond with her carer, check out the below video. Daisy’s carer, Aneshka, answers the question “What does your pet mean to you?”:

Thanks for learning about Daisy’s story. For regular team and patient wholesomeness, be sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Take care!

Team Ralph 🐾