Researchers in the Netherlands have found that equine wounds treated with a dressing impregnated with probiotics heal more quickly than when a dressing soaked in saline is used. Probiotics are live microorganisms that are beneficial to the host; they also compromise some bacteria.
Drs. Jacintha Wilmink, Søren Ladefoged, Angelique Jongbloets and Johannes C. M. Vernooij used 29 horses with lower leg wounds that were less than 6 months old and were more than 1.5 square inches. Most of the wounds were caused by trauma, but some wounds were caused from pressure.
Fifteen wounds were treated with probiotics and 14 were treated with sterile saline. The wounds were categorized into those with an incomplete granulation bed and wounds with a complete granulation bed.
Horsed were evaluated for 24 days, with bandage changes nine times during the study. Wounds were cleaned with swabs moistened with sterile saline and debris was removed. Blood was drawn and wounds were swabbed to identify the bacteria present.
The study team found that wound area decreased faster when dressings that contained probiotics were applied; the rate to 50 percent healing of wounds with a complete granulation bed was 3.4 times faster when probiotics were used in the wound dressing. No systemic inflammation was found from using the dressing with probiotics.
Read more at HorseTalk.
Read the full study here.
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