Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

It is common knowledge that our horses do occasionally hurt themselves and cause damage to their bodies. They also manage to do it in the most remarkable ways. The problem is not that they hurt themselves, because everybody does so from time to time. The problem is that they often experience difficulties with the healing of the wounds. The cause to that problem is the fact that they often lose a vast amount of tissue, the wound is more often than not extensively contaminated and the wound is often found a long time after the accident occurred. The result is that horses’ wounds often must heal by second intention which means that they have to heal in an open manner and cannot be closed by suturing. It is also not unusual that complications occur such as overgrowth of granulation tissue, chronic inflammations, poor contraction of the wound edges and decreased function due to extensive scar tissue.

To come to terms with this problem we need a method that will help in the healing of wounds. The purpose with this student report is to present and investigate a quite new method called Vacuum Assisted Closure (VAC). The question to answer is whether this is a method for the future in treatment of wounds in equine veterinary nursing. To truly look in to the subject a study of the literature available has been executed.

The method has been used since the ’90s in the treatment of wounds in humans and has been used in a sparse manner in the treatments of wounds in animals. Studies have been carried out, mostly in humans and for the sake of humans. More studies are needed though, especially more studies in horses, to answer the questions in this report. The effects are primarily beneficial but they often lack definite explanations. While we wait for more studies to be done we do not need to fear this method. The recorded negative effects are few and generally technical and there are no established absolute contraindications.

This method is according to the author’s opinion a method worth trying. It seems to have great potential and if it is given a few years to mature it will probably give us the answers we need to make a proper judgment.