Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Shock wave therapy helps dogs use leg sooner after knee surgery
By Barnes, Kate et al.·Published in Veterinary surgery : VS·2019·Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Extracorporeal shock wave therapy improves short-term limb use after canine tibial plateau leveling osteotomy.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs that underwent surgery to fix a knee problem (tibial plateau leveling osteotomy or TPLO) were given a treatment called extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) to see if it helped them use their hind legs better afterward. The dogs that received ESWT showed a significant improvement in how much weight they could put on their operated leg eight weeks after surgery compared to before the surgery. In contrast, the dogs that did not receive ESWT had less improvement in their leg use. This suggests that adding ESWT after TPLO surgery can help dogs recover more quickly and get back to normal activities.
People also search for: dog knee surgery recovery · extracorporeal shock wave therapy for dogs · TPLO surgery recovery time
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To determine the influence of postoperative extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) on hind limb use after tibial plateau leveling osteotomy (TPLO). STUDY DESIGN: Randomized, prospective clinical trial. ANIMALS: Sixteen client-owned dogs, 2 to 10 years old weighing 18 to 75 kg. METHODS: Dogs were randomly assigned to treatment cohorts, TPLO with ESWT (ESWT, n = 9) or TPLO without ESWT (control, n = 7). Treatment consisted of 1000 pulses at 0.15 mJ/mmimmediately and 2 weeks after surgery. Subjective pain, stifle goniometry, stifle circumference, peak vertical force (PVF) and vertical impulse (VI) were measured before surgery, prior to ESWT, and 2 and 8 weeks after surgery. Measures were compared between treatments at each time point and among time points for each treatment (P < .05). RESULTS: The PVF (5.5 ± 1.0 N/kg, mean ± SD) and VI (0.67 ± 0.14 N-s/kg) of surgically treated limbs in the ESWT cohort were higher 8 weeks after surgery compared with preoperative (3.8 ± 1.1 N/kg, P < .0001 and 0.47 ± 0.21 N-s/kg, P = .0012, respectively) values. In the control cohort, PVF (2.9 ± 1.3 N/kg, P = .0001) and VI (0.33 ± 0.20 N-s/kg, P = .0003) 2 weeks after surgery and VI (0.42 ± 0.2 N-s/kg, P = .0012) 8 weeks after surgery were lower (4.59 ± 2.33 N/kg and 0.592 ± 0.35 N-s/kg, respectively) than before surgery. Other parameters did not differ between groups. CONCLUSION: Weight bearing increased faster after TPLO in dogs treated with postoperative ESWT. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: This study provides evidence to consider adjunct ESWT after TPLO.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31469432/