Emergency avian surgery.

Avian surgery is an exercise of preparedness; this statement is never so true as in emergency and critical care situations. The techniques used in avian surgery are significantly different from those used in larger species and require microsurgical techniques. Before initiating a surgical procedure, the patient must be evaluated and, in many cases, prepared or preconditioned. Rarely is surgery such an emergency that the prognosis would not be improved by readying the patient. Techniques of tissue handling, approaches to the coelomic cavities and a select number of surgical procedures are described.