Transendoscopic electrosurgery for epiglottal entrapment in the horse

Monopolar electrosurgical cutting was used to correct epiglottal entrapment in 5 horses. The operations were carried out in the conscious animal, using topical anesthesia. The procedure required the use of a coagulation electrode designed specifically for electrosurgery, introduced through the instrument channel of a fiberoptic endoscope. The results were satisfactory and serious complications were not encountered. In 2 horses, excessive submucosal swelling developed at the site of the surgical wound, and the tumefaction took several weeks to subside in one of these horses. In both horses, the long-term outcome was a minor degree of reentrapment. The main advantages of this technique, compared with other corrective procedures, related to the avoidance of the need for general anesthesia and laryngotomy, allowing racehorses to be treated without any major interruption in their training schedules. The surgery was simple, rapid, and bloodless, and was not followed by any dorsal displacement of the soft palate. It was suggested that transendoscopic electrosurgery has potential for use in the treatment of a number of other diseases of the respiratory tract and other systems, both in the horse and in other species. In the equine respiratory tract, the technique might usefully be applied to the treatment of guttural pouch tympany, soft palate cysts, nasopharyngeal polyps, choanal atresia, subepiglottic cysts, and tracheal granulomata. A review of 21 cases of epiglottal entrapment in horses revealed no evidence to support the suggestion that dorsal displacement of the soft palate is a cause of epiglottal entrapment or vice-versa.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)