Abstract:
Myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) is the most common heart disease of dogs. The
current management of MMVD in dogs is mostly pharmacological, and the recommendations
for treatment are based on a number of veterinary studies. Notwithstanding the current
consensus regarding the medical management of MMVD, there remains active debate
as to which drugs are the most effective. In order to understand how recommendations
are constructed in the pharmacological management of diseases, the veterinarian needs to
understand the concept of evidence-based veterinary medicine, and how the findings of these
studies can be applied in their own practices. This review summarises the current veterinary
literature and explains how the consensus regarding the management of MMVD has been
reached. This review highlights the limitations of veterinary studies in order to provide
veterinary practitioners with a sense of the difficulty there is in establishing the benefit of one
treatment over the other. Veterinarians should therefore apply treatment recommendations
based on the best evidence, integrated with a pathomechanistic understanding of the disease
process and clinical experience.
