Long‐term exercising video‐endoscopic examination of the upper airway following laryngoplasty surgery: A prospective cross‐sectional study of 41 horses

Abstract

When investigating cases of ongoing respiratory noise or poor performance following LP, exercising endoscopy must be considered. Continued respiratory noise may be associated with poor arytenoid abduction and not performing concurrent ventriculectomy.

Dynamic respiratory endoscopic findings pre‐ and post laryngoplasty inThoroughbred racehorses

“…Following LP and VCE, collapse of vocal cord remnants occurred in 23% of horses in this study and has been reported elsewhere [5][6][7]21], highlighting the importance of complete vocal fold resection. Furthermore, it demonstrates the value of DRE as part of a complete and thorough evaluation of outcome following upper airway surgery.…”

“…Almost half of the cases (48%) had ADAF post operatively concurring with the reported prevalence rates of 34-60% post LP [5][6][7]. Interestingly, horses were significantly more likely to have ADAF post LP compared with preoperatively, suggesting the surgical procedure may have a causative role in the development of ADAF, or that onset of the disease process occurs in the time frame between both exercising examinations.…”

“…Upper oesophageal incompetence following LP has recently been described during exercise [7,29], with iatrogenic damage to the caudal pharyngeal constrictor muscles, their innervation, the intrinsic oesophageal musculature, or surrounding adventitia hypothesised to be potential causes. Upper oesophageal incompetence following LP has recently been described during exercise [7,29], with iatrogenic damage to the caudal pharyngeal constrictor muscles, their innervation, the intrinsic oesophageal musculature, or surrounding adventitia hypothesised to be potential causes.…”

Modified first or second cervical nerve transplantation technique for the treatment of recurrent laryngeal neuropathy in horses

“…We, therefore, believe that the improved exercising grades obtained after surgery in our study were due to the reinnervation. Several other studies in which resting and exercising endoscopy post-laryngoplasty were compared revealed a loss of arytenoid abduction during exercise compared with the resting abduction in 21% [20], 37% [22] and 45% [23] of the horses investigated, which was not observed in our study. In exercising grade C, the left arytenoid is less abducted than in the natural resting position [14] and, logically, this restricts airway flow.…”

“…In recent papers describing exercising endoscopy post-laryngoplasty, DUAO was observed in 37-58% of cases [22,23]. After reinnervation surgery, horses may have low resting abduction grades because the C1/C2 nerve is only activated during forced respiration.…”