Plate Removed, Green Mask Continues to Progress
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Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt
Green Mask in April at Park Equine Hospital near Versailles, Ky.
With the metal gone, Green Mask continues to show his mettle as he recovers from fractures in his left front leg suffered in September 2017.
According to Dr. Bryan Waldridge, who works with Old Friends Thoroughbred Retirement Farm's horses, Green Mask is moving forward each day as he recovers from his latest surgery. This month, Dr. Dean Richardson at the University of Pennsylvania's New Bolton Center removed a stabilizing plate that encouraged fusion of the bones.
Waldridge said because the plate was so large, the surgery left a significant wound in the leg. But it has been healing since Green Mask returned to Park Equine Hospital near Versailles, Ky., last week.
A grade 2-winning turf sprinter, Green Mask shattered the leg during a September workout at Belmont Park. Owner Abdullah Saeed Almaddah and trainer Brad Cox committed to save his life so he could enjoy retirement at Old Friends near Georgetown, Ky.
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Richardson also performed the fusion surgery. To encourage those bones to heal together, a locking plate was placed down the front of the joint, and a tension band cable—1.7 millimeters in diameter—was placed behind the fetlock, along with other screws across the joint in the sesamoids. Cartilage was removed to allow the joint to fuse.
Because it's not uncommon for infection to develop as bacteria forms on the plate, it is typically removed after the bones fuse.
"I'm pretty happy with (the results)," Waldridge said. "He has a pretty good wound there, because they had to get bone off the plate and off the screw heads and all. But the wound is healing well, and he's pretty sound on it."
The nearby Kentucky Equine Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation Center previously stepped up when Green Mask was recovering from the fusion surgery and battling infection by offering use of its hyperbaric chamber. KESMARC plans to again welcome Green Mask, with about five trips to the hyperbaric chamber planned in the days ahead. Waldridge said those treatments should accelerate healing of the wound.
If Green Mask continues to progress, Waldridge said a trip home to Old Friends could take place before month's end.