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As veterinarians find empirical success treating horses’ soft tissue injuries with complementary approaches, the common refrain heard is, “Great now show us the science,” requesting peer-reviewed research to validate the modality’s use. A research group based in Germany and Belgium did just that when they recently tested high-powered laser therapy in a standardized control study and found it significantly improved lesion healing in the suspensory ligament branch, a common cause of lameness in equine athletes.
“A lot of therapy modalities are being used before they’re actually tested in a standardized control study,” said Mathilde Pluim, DVM, MSc, an equine veterinarian at Tierklinik Lüsche, an equine hospital in Bakum, Germany, who performed the trial along with Prof. Catherine Delesalle’s Research Group of Comparative Physiology at Ghent University, in Belgium. She presented the results on the team’s behalf at the 2020 American Association of Equin