Clinical Research Abstracts of the British Equine Veterinary Association Congress 2015.

The research examines whether the drug triamcinolone, often used to treat equine orthopedic conditions, increases the risk of laminitis in horses. The results indicate that the drug does not significantly raise the risk of developing this condition.

Study Rational and Objective

• Triamcinolone is a drug commonly used in horse veterinary practice for treating orthopedic conditions.
• Previous research has suggested laminitis, a serious and painful condition in horses affecting the hoofs, as a potential side effect of triamcinolone use, although evidence for this risk was limited.
• The researchers therefore aimed to quantitively determine the risk of laminitis in horses within 90 days of triamcinolone administration and compare this with the risk of laminitis in the general horse population attending veterinary services.

Methods and Procedure

• The researchers conducted a retrospective study on existing clinical records taken from a sample of North American equine vet practices.
• Data extraction and text mining were carried out using content analysis software on a database of anonymised clinical records.
• The researchers identified three groups of horses in the records: those treated with triamcinolone, an age and practice matched control group with no triamcinolone treatment and a group of all horses that were identified as laminitic.
• The records of the first two groups were scoured for any evidence of laminitis within a 90-day period of treatment or a randomly selected date respectively.
• The prevalence of laminitis in all groups was calculated and the relative risk of developing laminitis was determined through single logistic regression.

Results

• The clinical records of 225,777 horses were examined.
• The overall prevalence of laminitis within the database was found to be 1.1% (2533 horses).
• Triamcinolone had been administered to 12.4% (27,898 horses), and among these horses, only 0.07% (20 horses) developed laminitis within 90 days of treatment.
• In the control group of 56,695 horses, with no triamcinolone administered, 0.2% of the horses (134 horses) developed laminitis.
• Statistical analysis showed the risk of developing laminitis to be significantly lower in the triamcinolone treatment group compared to the control group.

Conclusion

• The study concluded that the use of triamcinolone for treatment does not increase the overall risk of developing laminitis in horses.
• However, the researchers recommended further investigation of risk factors for laminitis in the affected horses identified by this preliminary study.
• The ultimate aim would be to aid the development of evidence-based treatment guidelines for the use of triamcinolone in treating equine orthopedic conditions.