Nephrosplenic entrapment is a type of colic that occurs when a horse's colon shifts and settles over the nephrosplenic ligament, trapping the colon and its contents, which causes distention and pain. Nearly 9 percent of colic cases seen in equine clinics are caused by nephrosplenic entrapment.
Though it's unclear what makes some horses more prone to the condition, it's suspected that a large abdomen, abnormalities in how a horse's colon moves and the shape of the nephrosplenic space may play a role.
There are several treatments for nephrosplenic entrapment, including administering medication to shrink the spleen and then working the horse to try to get the colon back to a normal position. Anesthetizing a horse and rolling him back and forth to try to free the colon can also be done. Finally, surgery may be performed to manually free to the colon.
Though most horses with nephrosplenic entrapment recover, nearly 21 percent of survivors will experience another entrapment. The University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center found that a surgical procedure to close the nephrosplenic space can prevent the entrapment from occurring again.
Veterinarians can tack surgical mesh over the top of the spleen, which keeps the colon from slipping into the space. This can be done laparoscopically in about 30 minutes and has no risk of failure. Veterinarians looked at the records of 26 horses that had experienced nephrosplenic entrapment that had the space closed with mesh: not one horse had a recurrence during the follow-up period, which was up to seven years.
Read more at EQUUS magazine.
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