Thousands of scientific articles are published each year in veterinary journals. Most of us wouldn’t dream of sifting through even a fraction of these, thoughtfully assessing the quality of the study, and deciphering what the results mean for "real" horses. Luckily, veterinary surgeons Sue Dyson, PhD, FRCVS, and Michael Ross, DVM, Dipl. ACVS, aren’t as easily daunted as the rest of us!

At the 2011 Florida Association of Equine Practitioner’s Annual Promoting Excellence in the Southeast Convention, held Sept. 29-Oct. 2 in Amelia Island, Fla., Dyson (head of Clinical Orthopaedics at the Animal Health Trust in Newmarket) and Ross (professor of surgery of the University of Pennsylvania’s New Bolton Center) presented and critically analyzed a handful of the most clinically relevant literature in the field of equine sports medicine.

One of the most clinically relevant studies presented during the news hour evaluated the effects of needle size, speed of needle insertion, and clipping hair on debris inside the joint following an injection.

"The study was prompted by the surgeon’s observing hair and debris during arthroscopic surgeries," explained Ross. "In total, 1,260 needles were analyzed for hair and tissue contamination