After Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro underwent surgical repair of a severe fracture many equine veterinarians were hearing the same statement “I didn’t think you could fix a broken leg in a horse”. The truth is some you can and some you cannot.
Making standing repairs of horse fractures
A fracture does not mean a horse must be euthanized, even if you cannot afford surgery to have a pin put in the bone. While this is old news to some, it may be good news to others.
A majority of horse owners have only heard about leg fractures or breaks in the racing industry, and these are often bad injuries. There seems to be a common assumption that since surgery is expensive, that a fracture, or break, is the end for a horse.
The answer is no. A fracture does not mean a horse must be euthanized, even if you cannot afford surgery to have a pin put in the bone. While this is old news to some, it may be good news to others.
Whether a fracture can heal with simple stall rest, surgery, or even heal at all, depends on what type of fracture it is.
In a recent study, a technique making standing repairs of horse fractures using sedation and local anaesthesia produced similar results to those achieved under general anesthesia, British research has shown.
The research was carried out at Rossdales Equine Hospital, in Exning, Newmarket, by equine surgeon Richard Payne and veterinarian Polly Compston, a resident in clinical research at the hospital, and their findings were published in the Equine Veterinary Journal.
Payne and Compston did their study because standing fracture repair in horses was a recently described surgical procedure and there was little in the way of follow-up data.
They described the outcome in a series of horses that had lower limb fractures repaired under standing sedation at the hospital. Case records for all horses that had a fracture surgically repaired, by one surgeon at the hospital under standing sedation and local anesthesia up until June 2011, were retrieved. Hospital records, an owner and trainer telephone questionnaire, and the “Racing Post” website were used to evaluate follow-up.
Thirty-four horses satisfied the inclusion criteria for the study. Fracture sites included the proximal phalanx, the third metacarpal bone and the third metatarsal bone.
One horse required euthanasia due to caecal rupture 10 days after surgery. They found that 20 horses (66.7 per cent of those with available follow-up) returned to racing. Where available, the average time from surgerty to return to racing was 226 days, although the time ranged from 143 to 433 days.
They concluded: “Standing fracture repair produced similar results to fracture repair under general anaesthesia in terms of both the number of horses that returned to racing and the time between surgery and race.”
Repair of lower limb fractures in horses under standing sedation had the potential for tangible benefits, they found, including avoidance of the inherent risks of general anaesthesia. “The preliminary findings in this series of horses are encouraging and informative when discussing options available prior to fracture repair.
Learn more about Fractures in Horses