2009 Volume 62 Issue 1 Pages 39-43
A retrospective survey was performed on 85 Thoroughbred horses diagnosed as guttural pouch mycosis from 1991 to 2006, including the treatment methodologies and their outcomes. The primary symptoms were epistaxis (n=73), dysphagia (n=11), and purulent nasal discharge (n=1). Five of 13 (38.5%) non-treated horses survived. Seven of 13 (53.8%) horses survived, and were treated medically with topical application under endoscopy and injection of antifungal drug, or blood transfusion. Six of nine (66.7%) horses survived with surgery of the internal and/or external carotid arterial ligation. All four (100.0%) horses survived with a combination of ligation and balloon catheter embolization of the internal carotid artery. Thirty-nine of 46 (84.8%) horses survived with a combination of the ligation and microcoil embolization. The results suggest the need for the ligation of internal and/or external carotid arteries in cases of epistaxis associated with guttural pouch mycosis. Microcoil embolization was an effective and practical procedure for preventing arterial bleeding by retrograde flow.
