Thoracic percussion to determine the caudal lung border in healthy horses.

Summary

# Thoracic Percussion vs Ultrasonography for Equine Lung Border Assessment Despite the widespread availability of modern imaging, thoracic percussion remains an underutilised clinical tool in equine practice, and this study sought to establish whether it could reliably identify the caudal lung border compared to the gold standard of ultrasonography. Bakos and Vörös examined healthy horses using both percussion and ultrasound examination, comparing the anatomical landmarks each method identified for the caudal extent of pulmonary tissue. The findings validate percussion as a practical, cost-effective bedside technique that produces results sufficiently comparable to ultrasonography for identifying lung borders. For practitioners without immediate access to ultrasound equipment—particularly farriers and field-based physiotherapists—percussion offers a rapid, non-invasive method to screen for potential thoracic pathology and monitor changes in lung capacity, whilst veterinarians might incorporate it as an efficient preliminary assessment before committing to more sophisticated imaging when clinical signs suggest lower respiratory compromise.

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Key Findings

• •Thoracic percussion can be used to determine caudal lung borders in healthy horses
• •Percussion findings were compared against ultrasonography as a reference standard
• •The study demonstrates percussion as a viable clinical examination technique despite availability of modern imaging

Conditions Studied