Retrospective Safety Analysis of Therapeutic Joint Injections (TJIS) In Dogs*

Introduction: Therapeutic joint injections are commonly used in canine medicine. Our goal was to retrospectively investigate the safety of canine therapeutic intra-articular injections, describing and correlating adverse events with the number of injections per visit, joint injected, signalment, body condition score, type and volume of injectate.

Materials and Methods: A search of the Cornell University Hospital for Animals medical records for relevant data was performed identifying dogs treated with therapeutic joint injections and rechecked between 2010 and 2022.

Results: There were 505 joint injections across 283 visits by 178 client-owned dogs, including the shoulder, elbow, carpus, hip, stifle, tarsus and metacarpophalangeal. Minor complications were noted in 70 of 283 visits and included transient soreness (18.4%, lasting a median of 2 days; range 1–20) and gastroenteritis (6.8%). One case of septic arthritis (1/505 joints), that possessed risks of a hematogenous source, was the only potential major complication. Soreness was not correlated with the number of joints injected per visit. Larger volumes of injectate normalized to body size were more likely to be associated with transient soreness in the stifle and tarsus. Across injectates, only stem cells had a significantly increased odds of soreness. Gastroenteritis was not associated with the type of injectate.

Discussion/Conclusion: Therapeutic joint injections in dogs are safe with an extremely low risk of major adverse effects. Transient soreness is a commonly expected minor adverse event. The use of stem cells or larger injectate volumes (confined to the stifle and smaller distal joints) may be more likely to invoke discomfort.

Acknowledgments:

There was no proprietary interest or funding provided for this project.

*The full manuscript has been published after acceptance of the abstract by the ACVSMR: Miller AV, Carney PC, Markmann A, Frye CW. Retrospective analysis describes safety of therapeutic joint injections in dogs. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2023 Jan 2;1(aop):1–6.

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Artikel online veröffentlicht:
01. Mai 2023