Treatment of sepsis in the small tarsal joints of 11 horses with gentamicin-impregnated polymethylmethacrylate beads.

The research used gentamicin-impregnated polymethylmethacrylate beads to treat arthritis infection in the small tarsal joints of 11 severely lame horses, resulting in nine out of the 11 horses surviving and seven among the survivors returning to their previous athletic performance levels.

Study Overview

• The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of gentamicin-impregnated polymethylmethacrylate beads in treating sepsis, an extreme response to an infection, in the small tarsal joints of horses.
• The study was conducted on 11 severely lame horses suffering from infective arthritis, which is an inflammation of the joints due to a bacterial or fungal infection.

Procedure

• Under general anesthesia, between five and ten beads were placed into a 7 to 8 mm tract drilled across the affected joint of each horse.
• Except for one horse, the beads were left in place for 14 days in all others.

Result

• Two of the eleven horses had to be euthanized for reasons unrelated to ongoing sepsis in the tarsal joint.
• Of the remaining nine horses, seven returned to their prior level of athletic performance, suggesting that the procedure was largely beneficial.
• This result demonstrates that gentamicin-impregnated polymethylmethacrylate beads could potentially offer an effective treatment for infective arthritis in horses, and possibly other animals and even humans.

Conclusions

• The results of this research indicate that using gentamicin-impregnated polymethylmethacrylate beads to treat sepsis in small tarsal joints of severely lame horses can be a successful course of treatment.
• The findings open the way for further exploration and development of this treatment method for similar conditions in other animals and possibly also in humans.