Preoperative and Postoperative Ozone Therapy in Cats Presenting Extensive Wounds Treated by Reconstructive Surgery Methods-A Short Case Series.

Abstract

The therapeutic management of extensive skin wounds in cats can be time-consuming and require multiple therapeutic interventions, which can have significant financial implications for pet owners. Reconstructive surgery is often necessary to close skin defects with tissue loss to provide a quicker patient recovery. Conventional therapies like systemic antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and local dressings are not always successful due to antibiotic resistance or a poor response, such as no or delayed healing. For more than a century, ozone has been utilized as an excellent disinfectant, but caution should be taken due to its oxidizing properties. Only in the past decade have numerous studies established therapeutic dose ranges for a wider medical use of ozone. The objective of this study was to clinically evaluate ozone therapy as a complementary treatment supporting and completing plastic and reconstructive surgery in 4 cats with extensive skin defects. The results obtained, following the local application of ozone therapy before and after skin reconstruction in our patients, encourage the use of ozone as a complementary therapy in the management of extensive skin wounds treated surgically by different reconstructive techniques.