Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
A Case Series of 11 Horses Diagnosed with Bone Spavin Treated with High Intensity Laser Therapy (HILT).
- Journal:
- Journal of equine veterinary science
- Year:
- 2023
- Authors:
- Zielińska, Paulina et al.
- Affiliation:
- Department of Surgery
- Species:
- horse
Plain-English summary
This study looked at how High Intensity Laser Therapy (HILT) could help horses with bone spavin, a type of arthritis affecting their hocks. Over two years, 11 horses with hind leg lameness were treated with this laser therapy, and they all had signs of arthritis on X-rays. After receiving 10 sessions of HILT over two weeks, some horses showed improvement in their lameness, with four horses improving by two grades and four by one grade. However, three horses did not show any improvement, and none were completely sound after the treatment. Overall, it seems that HILT may help reduce joint pain in these horses, which can lead to less visible lameness.
Abstract
The aim of this work was to characterize and describe the effect of High Intensity Laser Therapy (HILT) used in the treatment of chronic osteoarthritis in horses. Over a 2 year period, 11 horses with diagnosed bone spavin were treated with HILT as a monotherapy. The horses chosen for this report presented hind limb lameness, were positive in a spavin flexion test and showed improvement after intra-articular anesthesia of the tarsometatarsal joint. Additionally, all the horses presented radiological signs of tarsus osteoarthritis and had not been treated for bone spavin for a minimum of 6 months. Each horse received 10 HILT therapies over 14 days' treatment time with the same laser protocol. At post-treatment orthopedic examination, 4 horses (36%) had improved 2 lameness grades (in the 5 grade American Association of Equine practitioners lameness scale), 4 horses (36%) had improved 1 lameness grade and 3 horses (28%) did not improve. Additionally, 3 horses were totally sound after HILT. Post-treatment spavin test result improvement was observed in 5 horses (45%), and 6 horses (55%) showed the same spavin test grade as before treatment. There were no horses that were sound in the spavin test performed after HILT. Therefore, it seems probable that the application of HILT in horses suffering from bone spavin may decrease joint pain, which influences visual lameness reduction.
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Search related cases →Original publication: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36470513/