LAMENESS DIAGNOSTIC, TREATMENT, AND FOLLOW-UP IN ADULT SPORT-HORSES WITH HOCK OSTEOCHONDRITIS DISSECANS (OCD)

Although osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) is a developmental orthopaedic disease of the horse diagnosed mainly in foals and yearlings, its clinical manifestations of lameness and articular effusion can occur later during the animals' active life, impairing both welfare and athletic career. Regardless of the intra-articular localization of the lesions and the size of the detached fragments, tarsal osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) may not produce lameness in horses; thus, it may stay undiscovered for longer. This study aimed to provide a better insight into the diagnostic, arthroscopic treatment, and the long-term follow-up of athletic performance in lame adult sport horses suffering from tarsal OCD. Irrespective of the place of intra-articular localization of the OCD fragments or their size, the lameness grade improved immediately after the surgery for the vast majority of the 42 studied horses. The overall success rate of the intervention was 71.42%, assessed by using the time interval between the surgery and re-beginning of training, competing, and re-occurrence of any lameness in competition settings. These results are encouraging for the conclusion that curative arthroscopy can be the treatment of choice in the equine hock OCD for removal of up to 2 cm long intraarticular osteochondral fragments, irrespective of the gender, breed, and/or age of adult sport -horses, with good prognostics in restoring the orthopaedic soundness and competitional ability even in older horses, up to the age of 14 years.