THERAPEUTIC ULTRASOUND AS TREATMENT IN EQUINE WOUNDS
Júlia de Miranda Moraes, Ana Maria Guerreiro Braga da Silva, Fábio Henrique Bezerra
Ximenes, Ana Lourdes Arrais de Alencar Mota, Renata de Pino Albuquerque Maranhão,
Roberta Ferro de Godoy.
Introduction and objectives: The therapeutic ultrasound (TUS) works in several ways
to accelerate the healing of an injured tissue. It has the capacity of increase the cellular
metabolism, increases the cell permeability of the tissue’s membranes, changes the cell’s
volume and helps undue adherences due to the detachment of the collagen fibers. All this
properties makes the TUS diminishes the time spent on wound healing. The purpose of
this work is to relate the clinical efficacy of the use of the TUS, on the pulsated mode, as
a treatment protocol in equine wounds. Case report: Two adult horses were referred to
the Veterinary hospital with history of lacerations on the forelimbs. Animal A had a 73
cm² laceration on the lateral surface of the right arm and animal B had a 80,8 cm²
wound on the dorsal and lateral surface of the left cannon. They were submitted to
treatment with the TUS (Sonacel – Bioset, 1MHz) treatment using the direct method on
bare skin, with gel in between them, with the pulsated mode and 0,2W/cm² of intensity
around the lesions during 15 minutes, decreasing the time as the lesion heal. The sessions
were done three times a week, in a total of 26 sessions along 60 days. After thirty days
of treatment, animal A had a 60% (29,9 cm²) reduction of its initial measurement and
animal B had a 80% (16,8 cm²) reduction. Within fifty days of treatment, animal A
presented a 91% (6,2 cm²) reduction and animal B 92% (5,9 cm²) reduction of the initial
size. At the end of the treatment, on both horses, complete epithelization of the wound
was observed. Discussion and conclusion: The treatment used with the TUS was
crucial to modulate the inflammatory response, increasing the healing process and the
epithelization of the wound. After only seven sessions, the lesions had approximately a
35% decrease of its initial measurement. Therefore, the TUS is highly recommended to
treat equine wounds.
Hospital Escola de Grandes Animais da Granja do Torto da Universidade de Brasília (UnB). Endereço:
Galpão 4, SEAPA, Granja do Torto, Brasília-DF. E-mail: [email protected]