The use of sonoelastography to assess the recovery of stiffness after equine superficial digital flexor tendon injuries: A preliminary prospective longitudinal study of the healing process.
Authors: Tamura N, Nukada T, Kato T, Kuroda T, Kotoyori Y, Fukuda K, Kasashima Y
Journal: Equine veterinary journal
Summary
# Editorial Summary Quantifying soft tissue stiffness during tendon healing remains clinically challenging, yet understanding how mechanical properties recover is crucial for rehabilitating horses with superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT) injuries. Sonoelastography—specifically measurement of strain ratio (the relative deformability of injured tissue compared to healthy reference tissue)—offers a non-invasive method to track this recovery objectively, though its application in longitudinal studies of SDFT healing had not been systematically evaluated until this work. Tamura and colleagues conducted a prospective longitudinal assessment using sonoelastography to monitor strain ratio changes throughout the healing trajectory in horses with naturally occurring SDFT lesions, providing quantitative data on how tissue stiffness evolves from injury through recovery. The findings demonstrated that strain ratio measurements could reliably differentiate between healing phases and correlate with structural recovery, offering practitioners a potential tool to inform evidence-based decisions about rehabilitation progression and return-to-work timelines. For farriers, veterinarians, physiotherapists and coaches, this approach could help shift SDFT management away from arbitrary time-based protocols towards individualised assessment based on actual mechanical property recovery, ultimately optimising outcomes whilst reducing the risk of re-injury from premature loading.
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Practical Takeaways
- •Sonoelastography with strain ratio measurement offers an objective, non-invasive way to monitor tendon stiffness recovery during rehabilitation, improving decision-making about return to work timing
- •Quantitative assessment of healing progression may allow more evidence-based, individualized rehabilitation protocols rather than relying on subjective clinical assessment alone
- •This technique could help identify horses progressing normally versus those at risk of re-injury before resuming athletic activity
Key Findings
- •Strain ratio assessment via sonoelastography provides quantitative measurement of tendon stiffness recovery in SDFT injuries
- •This is the first longitudinal study using strain ratio to track stiffness progression during SDFT healing
- •Sonoelastography enables objective evaluation of mechanical properties to guide rehabilitation protocols