The Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials is one of the most prestigious events in the horse trials calendar. At the 2008 trial, eighty riders, including Eventing World Champion Zara Phillips, contended in show jumping, dressage and cross country over four days. Due to the high level of physical stress and serious falls, the riders are prone to injuries that have to be detected quickly to decide whether they are fit to continue the competition. For this purpose, an ACUSON X300™ ultrasound system was used at the 2008 event as part of an on-site sports medicine and injuries clinic available to all riders.

The clinic was a new concept in the eventing arena, established to provide rapid assessment, treatment and recovery of injured riders. This included a medical team for sports injuries, a physiotherapy suite for acute and ongoing sports injury treatment, and ultrasound facilities to enable enhanced injury assessment and targeted therapies. That way, the need for any musculoskeletal injury queries to be referred to the local hospital was avoided. Altogether twelve riders attended the center during the show. The ultrasound system was used on most of them, assisting in diagnosis and enabling riders to be confident about their riding condition. During the event one rider was forced to pull out after the ultrasound system confirmed she had a broken rib, while another competitor was found to have a swelling of an ankle tendon and was referred for soft tissue treatment.

“The ultrasound was immensely useful, enabling us to quickly verify whether the pain in a rider’s chest was a bruise or a broken rib. This meant riders could be assured they were fit to compete or confirm that they should pull out of competition,” said Patrick Dissmann, Consultant in Emergency Medicine at James Cook University Hospital, who manned the on-site clinic. “At this elite level, it is the little injuries that can have a huge impact on a rider’s performance, both short and long term. Without the ultrasound facilities, a detailed diagnosis of some injuries would not have been possible.” Clinicians found the scanner easy to use and stow away due to its lightweight, compact and portable design. The on-site medical team also cited the superb image quality and ability to focus on different structures at a variety of depths as very important elements of the ACUSON X300 system.