Regenerative Strategies for the Treatment of Equine Tendon Lesions

there are many unanswered questions surrounding the therapeutic use of stem cells in horses. While no treatment paradigms have been described, this lecture will providegeneral recommendations for the current treatment of equine tendon lesions. in addition to stem cells, the use of platelet rich plasma for the treatment of tendon lesions will also be discussed.

Treatment of discrete core lesions

• Stem cells should be injected directly into the lesion under ultrasound guidance.
- use of a 20 or 23 gauge needle is recommended for direct injection based on work from our laboratory in which the use of smaller gauge needles resulted in decreased cell viability presumptively due to cell shearing.

treatment of diffuse lesions or multiple lesions within the same limb references:
• Administration of stem cells via intravenous regional limb perfusion should be consid- ered based on a recent study by Sole et al. (2012).
-  Either intravenous catheters or butterfly needles size 20 gauge or larger are recommended for this technique for ease of slow administration and to avoid decreased cell viability as discussed above.
-  as reported by Sole et al. (2012), intra-arterial regional limb-perfusion should be avoided at this time due to the potential for arterial thrombosis {{628 Sole,a. 2012}}. [...]