Balancer‐assisted sling recovery of critical equine patients after general anaesthesia

Summary Background Traditional sling‐based systems to assist horses during recovery from general anaesthesia (GA) could be improved by adding a balancer to obtain a dynamic weight relief. Objectives To evaluate the applicability of a novel balancer‐assisted sling system during recovery of horses after GA and to report initial experiences with high‐risk clinical cases. Study Design Pilot clinical trial and a case series. Methods The system and its clinical applicability were evaluated in a pilot study involving two healthy horses and subsequently applied in 17 recoveries of 16 high‐risk clinical cases. Recovery quality was scored on a scale from 0 to 5 (0 = poor, 5 = perfect). System tolerability was subjectively assessed as good, moderate or poor, and the balancer system's effect on the overall success of recovery was categorised as positive, neutral or negative. Results In the pilot study, two test runs were sufficient to optimise integration into the existing infrastructure and to provide confidence for clinical applicability. In clinical high‐risk cases, recovery quality scores varied (score 5, n = 0; score 4, n = 4; score 3, n = 6; score 1, n = 1 and score 0, n = 6). One horse with a recovery score of 0 was euthanised due to implant failure sustained during recovery. Tolerability was good in seven cases, moderate in nine cases and poor in one case. The effect of the balancer for successful recovery was judged positive in five cases, neutral in nine cases and negative in three cases. Main Limitations Low case number, subjective assessments, lack of a control group. Conclusions The sling‐balancer system can be used in clinical practice to assist horses during anaesthetic recovery in selected cases. While some horses appeared to benefit from the assistance, others showed limited activity while supported (moderate tolerability), reducing their effectiveness or necessitating sling removal. Further clinical experience and improved criteria for patient selection are warranted.