Physical reparative treatment in reptiles

BACKGROUND: The tissue growth necessary to achieve a complete or partial restitution ad integrum as a result of injury to soft tissue and/or hard times in reptiles is variable and often needs long time in relation to the species, to the habitat and to their intrinsic physiological characteristics. The purpose of this work was to see if the tissue optimization (TO) treatment with radio electric asymmetric conveyer (REAC) provides good results in these animals and whether its use translates into reduced time of tissue repair. This paper describes preliminary results with in promoting the tissue repair in reptiles.Cases presentation: A 5 years old male Testudo graeca (Leo), a 5 years old male Trachemys scripta scripta (Mir) and a 15 years old female Testudo hermanni (Juta) were evaluated because of soft tissue injuries. A female 25 years old Trachemys scripta elegans (Ice), a female 2, 5 years old Trachemys scripta scripta (Penelope) as well as a 50 years old male Testudo graeca (Margherito) were evaluated because of wounds of the carapace. Following debridement and traditional therapies, Leo, Penelope and Margherito were exposed to the radio electric asymmetric conveyer (REAC) device, with a specific treatment protocol, named tissue optimization-basic (TO-B). Also Ice and Mir were subjected to REAC treatment after wounds debridement. Juta was treated only with REAC treatment.A complete wound healing was evident after 17 days for Leo, after 7 days for Penelope, after 27 days for Mir, after 78 days for Ice and after 14 days for Margherito. Juta showed a significant tissue activation in 2 days and a complete wound healing in 5 days. CONCLUSION: Our finding suggested that REAC TO-B treatment provided advantages over traditional methods in Leo, and showed a suitable healing in the other patients. Then REAC device with its specific treatment TO-B protocol, which induces tissue repair without causing severe stress to the patient, may be a therapy for tissue damages healing also in reptiles. Further studies need to be conducted to support our observations.