The Best Protocol to Treat Equine Skin Wounds by Second Intention Healing: A Scoping Review of the Literature

Abstract

Equine skin wound treatment continues to be a challenge for veterinarians. Despite being a frequent practice, it remains difficult to choose an evidence-based treatment protocol. This study aimed to comprehensively explore the literature and provide a scoping review of therapeutic strategies for equine skin wounds and identify knowledge gaps and opportunities for future research. This review was conducted using specific criteria to select literature that described methods to manage second intention wound healing. After removing duplicates and screening papers for suitability, 81 manuscripts were included for data extraction. Of these, 59 articles were experimental studies, 10 were case reports, 9 were case series, and 3 were clinical studies. The most frequent wound location was the distal limbs. Macroscopic assessment was the main tool used to evaluate treatment effectiveness. All of the case reports, case series, and clinical studies reported positive outcomes with regard to the treatment used, while only 36% of the experimental studies found significant healing improvement in treated wounds compared to control groups. It was found that there are many treatments that have exhibited controversial results, and there exists a lack of evidence for the adoption of specific treatment protocols.