Emerging and Adjunctive Therapies for Spinal Cord Injury Following Acute Canine Intervertebral Disc Herniation

Some dogs don't fully recover after surgery or medication for a slipped disc. This shows current treatments have limits. There's lots of research into new ways to help dogs with spinal cord injuries. These strategies aim to fix the spinal cord, help nerves regrow, protect against further damage, or improve how the dog functions. Many promising treatments have failed in trials with humans and dogs. It's still important to find new treatments for dogs. This helps us learn how injuries heal and create better treatment plans. This article reviews new and upcoming treatments for dogs with slipped discs. This review outlines treatments for dogs with slipped discs, including treatments focused on the injury area and systemic treatments in acute and subacute-to-chronic settings. These interventions include low-level laser therapy, electromagnetic fields, adjunctive surgical techniques, systemically or locally-applied hypothermia, neuroprotective chemicals, physical rehabilitation, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, electroacupuncture, electrical stimulation, nerve grafting strategies, and cell transplantation.

• 1
  Low-level laser therapy may reduce time to ambulation after surgery, but evidence is mixed and studies are limited.
• 2
  Pulsed electromagnetic field therapy may reduce post-operative pain and improve neurologic benefit in dogs with IVDH, but sample sizes are small.
• 3
  Durotomy may be beneficial in dogs with severe injury, especially in preventing development of progressive myelomalacia.