Postoperative complications in equine elective, clean orthopaedic surgery with/without antibiotic prophylaxis

Area of Science:

• Veterinary Surgery
• Equine Orthopaedics
• Pharmacology

Background:

• Postoperative complications following equine orthopaedic surgery can impact patient outcomes.
• The necessity of perioperative antibiotic administration in clean surgical procedures remains a subject of investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To retrospectively analyze postoperative complications in horses undergoing clean orthopaedic surgery.
• To compare complication rates between horses that received perioperative antibiotics and those that did not.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective analysis of 652 equine patients undergoing orthopaedic surgery between June 2011 and January 2015.
• Complication data from 259 antibiotic-treated horses were compared to 393 control horses.

Main Results:

• The overall complication rate was 39.1%, with increased swelling being the most frequent (25.6%).
• No significant difference in complication rates was observed between the antibiotic-treated group (37.5%) and the control group (40.2%).
• Septic arthritis occurred in 1.5% of arthroscopy cases, with no significant difference between treatment groups.

Conclusions:

• Severe complications are rare in equine clean orthopaedic surgery.
• Perioperative antibiotic administration did not significantly alter complication rates in this study.
• Antibiotics may not be essential for uncomplicated elective equine orthopaedic interventions.