New Perspectives in Suspensory Ligament Ultrasound

Suspensory ligament (SL) injury is an important source of lameness in performance horses. Injury to the SL not only affects the ligament, the third metacarpal or metatarsal bones may also be affected. 2-3 Multiple modalities are available to aide in the diagnosis of SL injury. All modalities can make a contribution to diagnosing and characterizing SL injury. 4 However, ultrasound is commonly used to diagnose suspensory ligament injury and can be used in the field. Although MRI will be required to diagnose certain injuries, ultrasound can be used to diagnose many types of suspensory ligament injury. The purpose of this article is to describe the techniques required for complete examination of the suspensory ligament.