Two new advanced pieces of equipment are improving the equine patient experience at University of Wisconsin Veterinary Care (UWVC), the clinical arm and teaching hospital of the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM).

With the addition of a flexible needle arthroscope, UWVC veterinarians can now perform arthroscopic surgery on joints while horses are under standing sedation rather than general anesthesia. This poses less risk for patients and enables surgeons to view joint structures under normal anatomical circumstances (i.e., while the animal is standing), which can increase the accuracy of diagnoses.

“Other diagnostic techniques, such as ultrasound and radiography, offer a more limited view of the joint,” said Sabrina Brounts, DVM, MS, Dipl. ACVS, ECVS, clinical associate professor of large animal surgery at the SVM, “so this new tool can definitely add to our evaluations.”

The new unit is especially useful for performing arthroscopy on the stifle, a complex hind-limb joint that connects the horse’s femur, patella, and tibia. As an added benefit, recovery times for evaluative procedures involving the needle arthroscope are shorter than a standard arthroscopy unit. The new tool can also be used on dogs and other small mammals, but equine patients likely will be the primary beneficiaries at UWVC