A study was undertaken to evaluate radiographically the effect of ultrasound therapy after creating" wedge fracture" in the left metacarpal bone in 12 clinically healthy adult donkeys aged between 4 to 6 years and weighing 150 to 300kg/BW.The animals were randomly divided in to two groups of 6 animals each. These groups were further divided into two subgroups of la, lIa of one month and Ib, lIb of two months duration with 3 animals in each subgroup for clinical observations. Ultrasound therapeutic regimen of 1 MHz and with the intensity of 1 W / cm2 for 10 minutes for 10 days, was started a week after fracture creation in animals of group II, Group I acted as a control. The radiographs of 0, 15, 30,45 and 60 post fracture days of both groups were evaluated for percentage of callus formation and radiographic density of fracture site. The percent of gap filled in 15 and 30 days in la was 27 .6:t0. 7 and 59.4:t3.62, whereas in lIa it was about 34.61:t2.67 and 76.77:t2.32 but in subgroup of Ib the percentage was 25.24:t1.68 and 65.1:t1.52 and in lIb 33.14:t1.50 and 77.30:t2.14. Whereas the percent for 45 and 60 days was 74.63:t2.45
and 94.26±O.53 for Ib animals and in lIb subgroup was 92.55O.86 and
100:t0, respectively. In comparison there were significant changes (p<0.05) with linear regression which indicated the acceleration rate of callus formation in the experimental group. The density differences were observed on 30 days as it was 3 only'in one animal of la and all animals of lIa. It was 3 in Ib and 2 in lIb on 45 days and 2 in Ib whereas 1 in lIb on 60 days. These density and percentage changes in group II indicated the effect of ultrasound therapy for well organised and compact callus formation.
)