Preventing and Treating Adhesions in Foals

Key Points  Postoperative abdominal adhesions in foals continue to be a source of frustration to surgeons.  An emphasis should be placed on adhesion prevention because treatment of adhesions once they have formed is unrewarding, costly, and associated with high patient morbidity and mortality.  Atraumatic surgical technique and a number of pharmacologic agents and devices have demonstrated efficacy in minimizing the incidence of postoperative adhesion formation.