Database: “Reprocases”

The low incidence of various diseases in small animal reproductive medicine makes it difficult to recruit sufficient numbers of animals for controlled clinical trials in a timely manner. Therefore, rare diseases and their treatment options are often under-studied, making clinical decisions difficult to make in practice. Female ovarian cysts in the bitch represent one such condition, with little reliable data available regarding treatment with hCG or GnRH (particularly with respect to side effects, treatment success, fertility prognosis, and recurrences).

“Reprocases” is a project, in which we are setting up a database for specific reproductive diseases like female ovarian cysts. The aim is to collect case reports from practitioners in order to provide initial insights into clinical outcomes of treatment approaches. Prior to the launch of the database, we conducted a survey amongst experts in the field of small animal reproductive medicine and combined this data with findings from recent literature to generate a treatment recommendation for ovarian cysts. This recommendation is included in the case report form and can be used by practitioners as a general orientation. Please note that there is no scientific evidence to support this recommendation and it must be regarded as nothing more than a suggestion! Practitioners are free to enter other treatment approaches and encouraged to include information regarding treatment success, side effects etc.

Data collection: From practitioners – for practitioners!

We would hereby like to encourage any practicing veterinarians, who have treated ovarian cysts in the past or currently have patients being treated for ovarian cysts, to fill out the case report form and share your treatment experience with us!

www.evssar.org/reprocases

If you have any questions or ideas, please do not hesitate to contact me: lisa.riege@fu-berlin.de

We are currently working on extending the database to include other rare diseases such as cryptorchidism in dogs and hope to be publishing further case report forms shortly.

We look forward to hearing your treatment stories!