Kluet is a very special patient; he is a 13 year old orangutan who lives at the Adelaide Zoo. 13 years is still adolescence for these primates, but even at this young age the boys are already very interested in girls. One evening last November, while playing roughly with his girlfriend, Kluet fell awkwardly and broke his arm. The keepers found a very unhappy Kluet when they came in early in the morning - he was clearly in a lot of pain. The veterinarians on duty knew immediately that he was likely to need surgery and called in Dr Warren Foreman to assist. Warren was out riding his bike at the time (Saturday morning) so it was a quick trip back to the hospital to collect all the necessary equipment and head to the zoo.
On arrival Kluet was just going under anaesthetic. His arm was x-rayed, which showed both bones in his right arm were broken and there was considerable overlapping of the broken ends. While the zoo team monitored his anaesthetic, Dr Foreman set up the orthopaedic equipment do to the repair. This required our air driven drill, surgery packs, drapes and all of our plates and screws. Nurse Arin and Dr David Mason also came along to assist.
Both bones were plated during the two hour operation and the final result can be seen on the x-ray images. Dissolving sutures were put in the skin and the arm was bandaged as orangutans are notorious for interfering with their wounds. Kluet was given pain relief medication and antibiotics as part of the ulna had penetrated the skin and the site was likely to be mildly infected.
Kluet made a good recovery. He was a little down the next day but after three days he was using his arm almost normally. This meant he was hanging his full weight (40kg) from it and climbing normally. This worried us a lot as, although we put heavy duty plates and screws on the bones, we were concerned that this level of use may have been too much.
Kluet had continued to do well, but had a small set back four weeks ago. A small discharging wound developed over the ulna bone and another operation was needed to remove a small segment of bone that had died. Fortunately the bone had healed itself around this dead piece and now that it has been removed we expect him to make a full recovery.
We are very pleased to report that none of this has dampened Kluet's enthusiasm for his girlfriend!
