The Best Protocol to Treat Equine Skin Wounds by Second Intention Healing: A Scoping Review of the Literature.

Simple Summary: As in humans, the treatment of skin wounds is a common clinical practice in veterinary medicine, especially in horses. This subject still requires great attention from researchers due to animal welfare concerns and economic losses resulting from the prolonged treatment of chronic wounds. This study has reviewed the scientific literature to identify which types of therapy have been described for equine wound healing. After selecting the publications using pre-established eligibility criteria, 81 manuscripts were included for data extraction on the characteristics of the articles, treatments, evaluation types, and results. Although the literature on equine wound management is very vast, there was observed a lack of evidence for the adoption of a treatment protocol, and many treatments with controversial results. Equine skin wound treatment continues to be a challenge for veterinarians. Despite being a frequent practice, it remains difficult to choose an evidence-based treatment protocol. This study aimed to comprehensively explore the literature and provide a scoping review of therapeutic strategies for equine skin wounds and identify knowledge gaps and opportunities for future research. This review was conducted using specific criteria to select literature that described methods to manage second intention wound healing. After removing duplicates and screening papers for suitability, 81 manuscripts were included for data extraction. Of these, 59 articles were experimental studies, 10 were case reports, 9 were case series, and 3 were clinical studies. The most frequent wound location was the distal limbs. Macroscopic assessment was the main tool used to evaluate treatment effectiveness. All of the case reports, case series, and clinical studies reported positive outcomes with regard to the treatment used, while only 36% of the experimental studies found significant healing improvement in treated wounds compared to control groups. It was found that there are many treatments that have exhibited controversial results, and there exists a lack of evidence for the adoption of specific treatment protocols. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]