EQUINE WOUND MANAGEMENT - ARE THERE SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES IN HEALING AT DIFFERENT SITES ON THE BODY

Trunk/body wounds heal rapidly with prominent contraction while wounds on the limb commonly fail to heal or heal slowly by centripetal epith elialization, often with insignificant contraction. Chronic exuberant granulating wounds on the limbs heal well after grafting from donor si tes on the trunk. Indolent wounds are less common but may granulate si gnificantly following moist wound-healing management. Sarcoid transfor mation is an increasingly important cause of healing failure. Sarcoid transformations on the trunk are commonly verrucose while those on the limb are usually aggressive and fibroblastic. The primary objective o f wound management should be to encourage rapid progression from acute inflammation to repair without intervention of chronic inflammation w hich is a significant factor in the pathophysiology of wound healing f ailure. Wounds fail to heal because there is disruption of the normal delicate balance of growth factors and inflammatory mediators. Wounds should be managed in such a way as to restore the balance of healing p rocesses without damaging any of the cells involved in healing.