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Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy - the increasingly popular therapy for horses

By Margaux Thomas
First Published: 14 October 2009 - Issue Number: 14

The  technique has been applied to humans for more than 30 years but used in equine veterinary medicine since approximately 2000 (Coyle, 2006). Experience with human medicine is important, as extensive clinical experience shows that equine skin and normal wounds in horses behave similarly to those in humans, another mammal.
Interest in HBOT by the equine industry is due to its ascribed beneficial effects on the healing of lower limb wounds, which remain a major health problem to man and horses worldwide. Slow-healing wounds or those that fail to heal can result in prolonged hospitalization, numerous surgical interventions and time-consuming wound care. Slow healing is particularly inconvenient and challenging for high-performance human and equine athletes. 
Whether or not horses are “wild” or “elitist” they will always by nature be flight animals prone to soft tissue injuries such as abrasions, puncture wounds, lacerations and bruises (Thomas, 2001), most frequently experienced as lower limb wounds (Slovin, 2008). Such wounds, including skin wounds, take longer to heal due to greater wound retraction, slower rates of epithelialisation and earlier cessation of contraction (Jacobs et al, 1984), which frequently leads to more serious conditions such as proud flesh and infection. They are subject to considerable tension during movement as the lower leg of the horse has no muscles below the knee or hock and no buffering tissues between the skin and the tendons, ligaments, joints or bones (Thomas, 2001). Lower limb wounds contribute to the loss of performance and potential loss of commercial value of the affected horse (Cochrane, 2003), and are thus dangerous for horses and horse owners, particularly those part of the elite equine industry such as racing.
In human medicine HBOT is provided to the patient through a variety of mechanisms. The most common is the walk-in (multi-place) chamber, compressed to depth with air while the patient breathes 100% oxygen with a head tent, face mask, or endotracheal tube. Alternatively, the patient may be treated in a one-person (monoplane) chamber pressurized to depth with oxygen.
Horses are treated in large hyperbar...

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