Materials and Methods: The compilation of data was based on signalment, case history, duration of clinical signs, anatomical location of the pain, method of diagnosis, type of EBD, treatment, and outcome. The diagnosis of EBD was based on a history of poor performance, clinical examination findings, radiography, and, where applicable, necropsy.
Results: A total of 181 diagnosed cases of EBDs were identified. The age of horses ranged from 5 to 22 years. The EBD cases were more prevalent in male than female horses and predominantly in geldings (60.77%). Thoroughbred, Arab, Polo pony, and Warmblood also recorded the most EBD cases among breeds. The discipline of horses tended to influence the development of EBDs, with patrolling horses recording the highest frequency. Most EBD cases were of the primary type (92.27%), with the main causes being soft-tissue lesions (57.48%), vertebral lesions (18.56%), tack-associated problems (16.77%), and neurological lesions (7.19%). The common treatments employed were administration of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents, 1 to 3-month rest, warm and cold compression therapy, massage therapy, exercise adjustment, as well as correction of ill-saddle fit.
Conclusion: Most EBDs in this study were associated with soft-tissue lesions. Among vertebral lesions, kissing spines were the most common cause of EBDs in horses in Malaysia.
METHODS: This was an observational manikin-based study. A total of 96 participants as well as two types of mechanical compression devices: Lucas-2 and AutoPulse, performed one minute of continuous chest compression on BT-CPEA programmed manikin while the ambulance travelled at different speeds, i.e., idle state, 30km/hr and 60km/hr. Seven outcome variables of chest compression were measured. Performance data of different groups of compressor were compared and analysed using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA).
RESULTS: In manual chest compression, significant variation were noted among different speeds in term of average compression rate (p<0.001), average compression depth (p=0.007), fraction of adequate/insufficient compression depth and fraction of normal hands positioning with p=0.018, 0.022 and 0.034 respectively. Overall, AutoPulse and Lucas-2 were not affected by ambulance speed. Lucas- 2 showed more consistent average compression rate, higher fraction of adequate compression depth and reduced fraction of insufficient compression depth as compared to manual compression with p<0.001, 0.001 and 0.043 respectively.
CONCLUSION: In this study we found that ambulance speed significantly affected certain aspects of manual chest compression most notably compression depth, rate and hand positioning. AutoPulse and Lucas-2 can improve these aspects by providing more consistent compression rate, depth and fraction of adequate compression depth during transport.