A Retrospective Analysis of 5,195 Patient Treatment Sessions in an Integrative Veterinary Medicine Service: Patient Characteristics, Presenting Complaints, and Therapeutic Interventions

Abstract EN

Integrative veterinary medicine, the combination of complementary and alternative therapies with conventional care, is increasingly prevalent in veterinary practice and a focus of clinical instruction in many academic teaching institutions.

However, the presenting complaints, therapeutic modalities, and patient population in an integrative medicine service have not been described.

A retrospective analysis of 5,195 integrative patient treatment sessions in a veterinary academic teaching hospital demonstrated that patients most commonly received a combination of therapeutic modalities (39% of all treatment sessions).

The 274 patients receiving multiple modalities were most frequently treated for neurologic and orthopedic disease (50.7% versus 49.6% of all presenting complaints, resp.).

Older neutered or spayed dogs (mean age = 9.0 years) and Dachshunds were treated more often than expected based on general population statistics.

Acupuncture, laser therapy, electroacupuncture, and hydrotherapy were frequently administered (>50% patients).

Neurologic patients were more likely to receive acupuncture, electroacupuncture, and therapeutic exercises but less likely than orthopedic patients to receive laser, hydrotherapy, or therapeutic ultrasound treatments ( P < 0.05 ).

The results suggest that the application of these specific modalities to orthopedic and neurologic diseases should be subjected to increased evidence-based investigations.

A review of current knowledge in core areas is presented.