LAMENESS
High-Quality Data to
POWER HIGH-POWERED LASERS P a u l
B a s i l i o
High-power laser therapy is often used to treat soft-tissue injuries in humans and horses, but there are few controlled studies looking at its safety and efficacy. Anecdotal data seem promising, but will lasers hold up to rigorous study? “A lot of therapy modalities are used before they are actually tested in a standardized, controlled study,” admitted Mathilde Pluim, DVM, MSc, of Tierklinik Luesche, Germany, and Ghent University in Belgium. In 2018, Dr. Pluim and her colleagues published a single-center retrospective study in Veterinary Science that included 150 horses with lesions in the superficial deep digital flexor tendon, the suspensory ligament, and the suspensory branches. The horses received high-power (15 W) laser therapy for 2 consecutive weeks, and data were logged pre-treatment, directly after treatment, and at 4 weeks post-treatment. Long-term results were also obtained up to 2 years later.
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Issue 8/2021 | ModernEquineVet.com
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