Obtaining a diagnosis in a lame horse today is less complicated than ever before, thanks to the technologically advanced standing equine MRI system from Hallmarq Veterinary Imaging. The system allows horses to stand for scans of the foot and lower leg instead of undergoing general anesthesia for the same scans.
No anesthesia necessary with standing MRI of horse
Veterinarians order MRIs for a number of reasons, including detection or management of an injury and identifying disease processes in the tissues or joints.
The horse is simply walked into the machine. Because the Hallmarq standing equine MRI system eliminates the need for general anesthesia, which can lead to death in almost one in 100 healthy horses, the system is much safer than traditional MRIs.
Death from anesthesia is rare, but it does happen," says Dan Brown, BVSc, MRCVS, business development director at Hallmarq. If you have a horse that needs multiple scans, you are taking that risk each time a scan is required. By using the standing equine MRI, you remove that chance. In addition, putting a horse under anesthesia can also result in injury, as horses can be disoriented or unsteady when they wake and can injure themselves.
Veterinarians order MRIs for a number of reasons, including detection or management of an injury and identifying disease processes in the tissues or joints. They are particularly useful when the location of the lameness is known and other methods, such as radiographs and ultrasounds, have failed to identify the problem. The standing MRI is proven to provide a diagnosis in more than 90 percent of cases, and it is safer and often more cost-effective than a conventional â??downâ? (anesthetized) MRI.
MRI images closely reflect the true anatomy; X-rays allow us to visualize bones and ultrasounds show only soft tissue," says Brown. "MRIs help provide a more accurate diagnosis, and our standing equine MRI has proven to offer comparable diagnostic ability to other MRI systems available."
Wesley Sutter, DVM, MS, Diplomate ACVS, Lexington Equine Surgery & Sports Medicine, a specialist in equine orthopedic surgery and sports medicine, recently installed the equine standing MRI machine in his practice to provide clients a better option.
Hallmarq is driving innovation in the equine veterinary field," says Sutter. Their standing MRI machine allows us the ability to clearly determine what type of injury the horse has in the least invasive way. It's simply safer for the horse."
Hallmarq manufactures its standing equine MRI machine in Guildford, United Kingdom, and has offered the product in the United States since 2004.
"Our goal is to continue to expand our reach so we can provide more practitioners and horse owners the option of standing equine MRI,"says Brown. It provides the same quality scans as a traditional MRI but it is easy on the veterinarian, the owner and more importantly, the horse."
To find out more about Hallmarq or to locate a standing equine MRI system near you.