Estudio retrospectivo sobre la incidencia de la hemiplejia laríngea en caballos sometidos a endoscopia durante el curso 2014/2015. Impacto económico

Résumé

This is a retrospective research in which we have analyzed the medical records of 10 horses admitted to the Equine Medicine and Surgery Service of the Veterinary Hospital (Murcia University) during the academic course 2014/2015, which have required an endoscopy of the upper airways, due to respiratory symptoms presented in all of them, that pointed to a problem in the upper airways. It has been observed that 90 % of the studied animals were males, that 60 % were older than 10 years old and that 50 % of patients were P.R.E. (Spanish bred), the other 50% belonged to high-rise breeds as Frison, KWPN and Holsteiner. It has been determined that left laryngeal hemiplegia was the most prevalent disease in this group of animals with a percentage of 60 % from the total cases. Of this percentage, 50 % were Spanish-bred (P.R.E), being the other 50% Frisón and Holsteiner. The 100 % of patients were males, and 67 % were out of the expected and previously observed range of the affectation age, between 2 and 5 years, for this pathology. About the surgeries, the prosthetic laryngoplasty and ventriculocordectomy was practiced on 33 % of affected patients, and the results were very satisfactory. In terms of economic impact, laryngeal hemiplegia accounted for 83.54 % of the cases from the upper airways conditions requiring endoscopy, which had a 6.5% economic weight in the total revenues collected by the Equine Medicine and Surgery Service of the Clinical Veterinary Hospital during this period. These data reaffirms the usefulness of endoscopic technique in equine medicine, since it not only increases the quality of the diagnoses, but it also increases directly and indirectly the veterinarian incomes.Keywords: Equine laryngeal hemiplegia, endoscopy, economic impact, upper airways.