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• High intensity laser therapy reduce lameness in horses with bone spavin. • High intensity laser therapy can be supportive treatment of bone spavin. • High intensity laser therapy can be safely used for treatment of bone spavin. The aim of this work was to characterize and describe the effect of High Intensity Laser Therapy (HILT) used in the treatment of chronic osteoarthritis in horses. Over a 2 year period, 11 horses with diagnosed bone spavin were treated with HILT as a monotherapy. The horses chosen for this report presented hind limb lameness, were positive in a spavin flexion test and showed improvement after intra-articular anesthesia of the tarsometatarsal joint. Additionally, all the horses presented radiological signs of tarsus osteoarthritis and had not been treated for bone spavin for a minimum of 6 months. Each horse received 10 HILT therapies over 14 days' treatment time with the same laser protocol. At post-treatment orthopedic examination, 4 horses (36%) had improved 2 lameness grades (in the 5 grade American Association of Equine practitioners lameness scale), 4 horses (36%) had improved 1 lameness grade and 3 horses (28%) did not improve. Additionally, 3 horses were totally sound after HILT. Post-treatment spavin test result improvement was observed in 5 horses (45%), and 6 horses (55%) showed the same spavin test grade as before treatment. There were no horses that were sound in the spavin test performed after HILT. Therefore, it seems probable that the application of HILT in horses suffering from bone spavin may decrease joint pain, which influences visual lameness reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background One of the most important elements of the transpedicular screw implantation technique, which enables a strong screw-bone interface, is the precise choice of the site of screw insertion and the screw's trajectory. Due to the complex biomechanics of the lumbosacral interface and different shape of the sacrum, fixation of this segment remains a challenge for surgeons. Because of this, Kubaszewski et al. proposed a modified technique in which the entry point for screw insertion in the S1 vertebra is changed. Methods Six human cadaver specimens of the S1 vertebrae were examined. Two transpedicular screws were inserted into the body of each examined vertebra using two implantation methods with different screw entry points and trajectories. The screws were subjected to cyclic preloading, followed by the pull-out test. The ultimate pull-out force, displacement, stiffness, and failure energy were measured. Findings The average pull-out force obtained for the standard method of implantation was 498 N (SD 201), whereas for the modified technique, it was 1308 N (SD 581). Displacement of the inserted screws in the new method was 36% higher than in the case of the standard method. This method is also characterized by the greater stiffness of the obtained interface and greater failure energy than the normally used technique. Interpretation The obtained results demonstrate that the use of the new technique of implantation significantly increases the strength of the obtained screw-bone interface. It should also increase the success rate of the performed fixations and increase the safety of such fixations in clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study was performed on 18 clinically healthy female wild boars with initial body weight of 35 ± 2 kg. The animals were divided into two experimental groups (group I and group II) and one control group (group C) of 6 female wild boars per group. Group I animals were administered per os pure zearalenone (ZEN) at 150 μg/kg BW every two months for 7 subsequent days, whereas group II animals received feed naturally contaminated with ZEN at 50 μg/kg BW/day. Female wild boars were exposed to ZEN over a period of 1 year. Control group animals were fed a placebo. Tissue samples (dorsal muscles, left lobe of liver, left kidney, spleen, apical part of the cardiac muscle, cranial lobe of lung, left ovary, central part of the left horn of the uterus) were collected on the last day of the experiment within 3 min after slaughter. In group I, the highest ZEN levels were noted in the spleen (19.813 ng/g), cardiac muscle (18.105 ng/g) and kidneys (14.555 ng/g). In group II, the highest concentrations of ZEN were observed in muscle tissue (12.033 ng/g), uterus (10.821 ng/g) and kidneys (10.463 ng/g). The highest values of the carry-over factor were noted in the same tissues. In the examined female wild boars, per os exposure to natural sources of the parent substance or a combination of ZEN and its metabolites led to different concentrations of ZEN in the analyzed tissues. Zearalenone concentrations were compatible with CF values in both experimental groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]