The treatment of horses with chronic back pain by resecting the summits of the impinging dorsal spinous processes.

This paper describes the surgical treatment of 14 horses exhibiting chronic back pain attributed to impaction and overriding of the dorsal spines in the thoracolumbar region. The technique involved the resection of the summits of one or more dorsal spines following midline division of the supraspinous ligament. All the horses returned to full work after a convalescent period of at least four months, and 12 of them showed considerable improvement in their form and performance. A post-surgical complication encountered in one case was the development of new bone on the edge of a resected spine. This lesion, which pressed on the dorsal spine immediately caudal to it, was removed subsequently at a second operation and no further sequelae occurred.