Comparison of Arthroscopic Lavage and Needle Lavage Techniques, and Lavage Volume on the Recovery of Colored Microspheres From the Tarsocrural Joints of Cadaver Horses.

This study investigates the comparison between arthroscopic and needle lavage techniques for recovery of colored microspheres from the joints of horse cadavers. The results show that needle lavage yielded a significantly higher number of microspheres in the first liter of lavage fluid than arthroscopic lavage.

Objective and Methodology

• The study revolves around an experiment on adult Quarter Horse cadavers to quantify the recovery of colored microspheres from tarsocrural joints (ankle joints) using arthroscopic or needle lavage with volumes ranging from 1 to 5 liters of fluid.
• After the horses were euthanized, 1.5 million colored microspheres were injected into each tarsocrural joint.
• The joints were randomly assigned to undergo lavage, a washing out process using 5L of 0.9% saline, either with an arthroscope or three 14-gauge needles.
• The fluid that egressed from each liter of lavage was collected separately over time and the quantity of microspheres in each recovered liter was measured using spectrophotometry, a method for determining the concentration of colored compounds in a solution.

Results

• A statistically significant interaction was found between the treatment group and amount of fluid used.
• The first liter of lavage fluid from the needle lavage group contained a significantly higher number of microspheres compared to the arthroscopic lavage group.
• For both groups, the first liter of lavage fluid contained the majority of total microspheres recovered and was distinguishably different from each subsequent liter collected.
• There was no difference observed in the number of microspheres recovered between the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th liter within or between the two treatment groups.

Conclusions

• Based on the findings, the study concludes that the tarsocrural lavage using three 14-gauge needles was more effective at removing colored microspheres from the joint than the arthroscopic lavage. This indicates that the number or placement of portals might be more significant than the size of the portal and the flow rate.
• Furthermore, there was no difference observed in the microsphere recovery with lavage volumes greater than 1 liter. This suggests that increasing the volume of lavage fluid beyond 1 liter does not yield a higher recovery rate of microspheres.