I’m wanting to hear the all around explanation of shockwave treatment in horses. Specifically for use on arthritis or osteoarthritis and bone spavins. What is it? What does it do? How does it work? What does it cost? Has anyone tried it or can speak for its effectiveness? Etc. Thank you!
It was used for KS on my TB as part of his treatment. He did awesome.
What do you mean by KS? Thanks.
I will guess it is kissing spines.
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I’m not a vet but I understand the shock wave emits a powerful energy wave which creates inflammation to heal targeted areas. I’ve seen it used successfully for neck arthritis. it is also used to aid in healing injured ligaments.
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I have had it done on two horses, 10 years apart: one for a high suspensory tear LH and the other for a strained DDFT RH. In both cases it is reasonable to assume that the recovery time was shortened.
The suspensory case was off stall rest in about 10 weeks and back to full work (incl jumping) at roughly 20 weeks/four months. IIRC, he had four or five treatments throughout the 10 weeks of stall rest.
The DDFT was off stall rest in four weeks and back to full work (incl jumping) in about 10 weeks. IIRC, she had three treatments total.
Both horses made complete recoveries and returned to winning in the show ring. In fact, the DDFT mare made a late-season comeback of five shows that year, was champion or reserve at three of those and won the big classic at the final show. I did step down the suspensory gelding from the A/As to the 2’6" hunters, but he was already 16 and had nothing left to prove to anyone. I let him teach the ropes to some kids for a few years until he retired sound. He is now 25 years old and still hacking out.
This is a good overview of the treatment:
http://veterinarynews.dvm360.com/shock-wave-therapy-lameness
Why isn’t it used in human medicine? I’ve read many reports that it doesn’t work - at all - and in fact, can make some conditions worse. I’ve used it on horses in the past and never ever saw any benefits. I always choose other treatment options now after consulting with my vets.
It is used in human medicine.
That’s what I thought… in fact my mom actually gets chronic migraines and shockwave to some knotted up areas in her neck actually really helped her for a number of years.
It is used in human medicine, but uncommon because most insurance carriers consider it experimental and therefore won’t cover treatment.
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I think it is FDA approved for certain conditions that are not dissimilar to the types of tissues we use it on in horses. I think tennis elbow is one example.
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Interesting, considering this: http://www.doctorramey.com/shock-wave-eswt-extracorporeal-shock-wave-therapy/
I don’t always agree with Dr. Ramey but he cited a lot of studies showing it does not work. Any links to studies showing where it’s used on humans? I could see it being used for temporary pain relief/numbing, but a TENS unit does the same thing without damaging tissue.
I have used it on my own elbow…it worked and the condition did not return
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me also- 2 years ago now
@Tiffani B Google scholar turns up a lot of papers. A few below -
http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/9324482
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0363546506298109
https://josr-online.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1749-799X-7-11
One excerpt that I think is important to note on the issue of “tissue damage”:
“Shockwave in urology (lithotripsy) is primarily used to disintegrate urolithiasis, whereas shockwave in orthopedics (orthotripsy) is not used to disintegrate tissues, rather to induce tissue repair and regeneration.”
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I worked at a spa where it was used to get rid of cellulite.
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For what condition?
Kissing spine.
