Author Topic: Feline Injection Site Sarcoma info  (Read 1517 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Pookie

  • Charter Member
  • Motor Mouth
  • Join Date: Jul 2011
  • Posts: 5441
  • Country: us
  • Proud member of the Wet Food Club
Feline Injection Site Sarcoma info
« on: April 25, 2012, 12:39:02 PM »
I find it interesting that when vets started vaccinating in the leg, the number of tumors in the neck/scruff area decreased, and the number of sarcomas in the leg/abdomen increased, particularly with the rabies vaccine.  

From the World Small Animal Veterinary Association (WSAVA) Vaccination Guidelines:  http://www.wsava.org/VGG1.htm

Sites of Vaccination for Cats
Over the past 20 years it has become evident that one trigger for the feline injection site sarcoma (FISS) may be the administration of adjuvanted FeLV and rabies vaccines. Most subcutaneous injections (including of vaccines) have traditionally been given into the interscapular region of the cat and this is a common site for formation of a FISS. The infiltrative nature of these tumours has meant that often radical surgical resection was necessary to attempt removal of these lesions.

In North America the response to this issue was the recommendation of a protocol whereby the two perceived high-risk adjuvanted vaccines would be administered into distinct anatomical sites that would be more amenable to surgical removal of any FISS that might develop. Accordingly the recommendation ‘left leg leukaemia, right leg rabies’ suggested that FeLV vaccine should be given as far distal as possible into the left hind limb, whilst rabies vaccine should be given as far distal as possible into the right hind limb. A recent study has evaluated the effect of this practice by comparing the anatomical distribution of FISS in cats before the recommendation was made (1990–1996) and after the practice was adopted (1997–2006). These data show a significant decrease in the prevalence of interscapular FISS and an increase in prevalence of tumours in the right (but not left) hind limb. More notably, there was also an increase in the number of tumours reported arising in the right and left lateral abdomen, and this was attributed to the difficultly of injecting into the distal hindlimb and these abdominal sites being accidentally injected (Shaw et al., 2009).

This practice has not been adopted outside of North America. Given these recent data, the VGG recommends the following approach to reducing the risk of FISS:

• Non-adjuvanted vaccines should be administered to cats wherever possible.

• Vaccines (particularly adjuvanted products) should not be administered into the interscapular region.
Journal of Small Animal Practice • Vol 51 • June 2010 • © 2010 WSAVA 13

• Vaccines (particularly adjuvanted products) should be administered into other subcutaneous (and not intramuscular) sites.  The most accessible sites, with acceptable safety for the vaccinator (i.e. to avoid accidental self-injection during difficult restraint of the animal), would appear to be the skin of the lateral thorax or abdomen. The skin of the lateral abdomen represents the best choice as FISS that might arise at this site may be more readily excised than those occurring in the interscapular or intercostal regions where more extensive surgical resection is required.

• Vaccines should be administered into a different site on each occasion. This site should be recorded in the patient’s record or on the vaccination card by use of a diagram indicating which products were administered on any one occasion. The sites should be ‘rotated’ on each occasion. Alternatively, a practice might develop a group policy that all feline vaccinations are administered to a specific site during one calendar year and this site is then rotated during the following year.

• The VGG encourages all cases of suspected FISS to be notified via the appropriate national reporting route for suspected adverse reactions.
« Last Edit: April 25, 2012, 12:41:15 PM by Pookie »
2-4-6-8  Please don't over-vaccinate!
"Pass on what you have learned."  -- Yoda, Star Wars:  Return of the Jedi

Tags: