Does Shock Wave Therapy Enhance PRP’s Effects in Horses?

Applying shock wave therapy immediately following PRP injection into injured soft-tissue structures might help increase the concentrations of growth factors released from the platelets, researchers found.
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Shock wave therapy used on horse
Veterinarians frequently extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) to simulate healing and trigger cell-specific responses to injury. | Photo: Courtesy PulseVet

Platelet-rich plasma (better known as PRP) delivers a high concentration of platelets—an important component of blood that plays a role in healing injured tissues—to lesions, increasing the amount of growth factors at the site to, hopefully, help the injury heal. Veterinarians frequently used PRP to heal soft tissue injuries. They use extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) to simulate healing and trigger cell-specific responses to injury. So would applying shock wave after PRP administration enhance the release of growth factors from PRP and promote better tissue healing?

That’s exactly what a research team led by Kathryn Seabaugh, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVS, ACVSMR, a sports medicine and rehabilitation specialist at Colorado State University’s (CSU) College of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, in Fort Collins, set out to determine.

Her husband, Kurt Selberg, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVR, an assistant professor of diagnostic imaging at CSU, presented her research at the 2017 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention, held Nov. 17-21 in San Antonio, Texas, as Seabaugh was unable to attend the meeting

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Erica Larson, former news editor for The Horse, holds a degree in journalism with an external specialty in equine science from Michigan State University in East Lansing. A Massachusetts native, she grew up in the saddle and has dabbled in a variety of disciplines including foxhunting, saddle seat, and mounted games. Currently, Erica competes in eventing with her OTTB, Dorado.

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