What happens during breakdown and repair of the suspensory ligament and what are different treatments aimed at?
Injuries to the suspensory ligament represent a huge problem in equine veterinary medicine. As many of the affected horses are elite-competition athletes, there are high expectations on veterinarians to make these horses fully functional again. The suspensory ligament has several features which makes the healing process complicated. So far no treatment has shown to optimize the healing process. This has led to the testing of many new treatment methods, in order to find a consensus for the injury. When recommending treatments and preventing factors to hinder injuries to the suspensory ligament, it is important to know why the particular ligament has been ruptured. It is also important to study exactly what happens during the healing process. Existing treatments aim at minimizing the acute inflammation that occurs directly after the injury and then ease the process of regaining the structure of the ligament tissue. The aim is also to prevent scar tissue from forming and becoming abundant. The reason for this is that scar tissue lacks the strength and elasticity of the healthy ligament tissue.