The news post-lameness exam from the veterinarian isn’t good: Your sport horse has injured his stifle. Not only do these injuries tend to have long recovery times, they often don’t respond well to traditional treatment modalities.

Veterinarians are evaluating a new cutting-edge treatment, however, to solve the stifle problem: regenerative medicine. At the 2015 American Association of Equine Practitioners’ Convention, held Dec. 5-9 in Las Vegas, F. Ross Rich, DVM, PA-C, who owns Cave Creek Equine Surgical and Diagnostic Imaging Center, in Phoenix, Arizona, presented the results of his study on the topic.

This is the first study evaluating the effects of adipose-derive regenerative cells (ADRC) and interleuken-1 receptor antagonist protein (IRAP) on stifle joint injuries, he said.

The team examined the medical records of 98 horses (for a total of 189 stifles) diagnosed with stifle injuries or abnormalities, the most common of which was abnormal articular cartilage in 97% of horses