Discussion on New Treatment for Chronic Tendon Pain?
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Robert N. Oglesby DVM
Moderator
Username: Dro
Post Number: 13368
Registered: 1-1997
| | Posted on Monday, Jul 18, 2005 - 12:47 pm: |   |
Why some tendons and ligaments stay painful after healing is a question that has perplexed medical doctors and veterinarians. In humans they have figured out that the pain can be neurogenic, it comes from the physical stress on nerves that have grown into the damaged tendon along with new blood vessels. The blood vessels can be seen with a very good ultrasound exam. In humans the work has been carried even a step further, by injecting a sclerosing agent, one designed to kill off the vessels and nerves, the pain is relieved. This group is Sweden has identified what appears to be the same condition in horses giving us another possible treatment for chronic tendonitis:
Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc. 2005 Apr 27;
Neovascularisation in chronic tendon injuries detected with colour Doppler ultrasound in horse and man: implications for research and treatment.
Kristoffersen M, Ohberg L, Johnston C, Alfredson H.
Stromsholm Equine Hospital, Djursjukhusvagen 11, 73040, Kolback, Sweden, mads.kristoffersen@hastsjukhusetstromsholm.se.
Recent research on chronic painful Achilles tendons in humans using ultrasonography and immunohistochemistry, has demonstrated an association between neurovascular ingrowth and tendon pain. In horses, chronic debilitating tendon conditions are well-known to be very difficult to treat, and the background to impaired function and pain is not scientifically clarified. In a collaborative research project between the Sports Medicine Unit in Umea and Stromsholm Equine Hospital, grey-scale ultrasonography (US) and colour Doppler (CD) examination were performed in ten horses with chronic tendon injuries (>3 months) and a control group of six healthy and asymptomatic horses. In all symptomatic tendons, but not in any of the tendons in the control group, neovessels were seen in the area with structural tendon changes. The neovessels found in the horse tendons looked similar to what has recently been presented in human Achilles tendons. These findings motivate evaluation of the same treatment, a sclerosing injection that was demonstrated recently to give promising results in the treatment of chronic Achilles tendon injuries (tendinosis) in humans.
DrO |
