Equine practitioners have cautioned about the possibility of inducing laminitis when giving a horse a corticosteroid joint injection, but a study performed by Dr. Paula Tokawa, with the University of San Paulo's School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science, has shown that the possibility of laminitis may be overstated when administering joint injections to healthy horses, reports The Horse.
The scientists reviewed literature available that investigated the relationship between IA corticosteroids and laminitis. Two studies which used control groups showed that the overall incidence of laminitis occurrence with IA corticosteroid use was low and similar to that seen in the control group.
The team concluded that because the incidence of laminitis was low and similar to the control groups, other factors may be causing the occurrence of laminitis in the study horses, including the development of equine metabolic syndrome (EMS) or pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID), both of which might cause a horse to founder.
Additionally, they determined that the amount of corticosteroids administered does not directly correlate with laminitis occurrence.
They conclude that IA corticosteroid injections are only weakly associated with laminitis, so long as the horse doesn't have additional risk factors or a history of laminitis. The team reports that additional studies are needed.
Read more at The Horse.
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