Thoracic and Abdominal Trauma

Comparison of clinical outcomes in cases of blunt, penetrating, and combination trauma in dogs: A VetCOT registry study

“…The blunt trauma group had the highest proportion of AFASTs and TFASTs performed. This is likely attributed to the knowledge that intracavitary injuries such as pneumothorax, pulmonary contusions, and abdominal hemorrhage can occur secondary to blunt trauma 4,9–11 . The number of severe bite wounds penetrating the body wall has been reported to be as high as 54% for abdominal wounds and 50% for thoracic wounds 5 .…”

“…These wounds are often appendicular and can often be managed with open wound management or primary closure not requiring an OR 12 . This is in contrast to blunt trauma that is more likely to involve the thoracic or abdominal cavities in which surgical procedures should only be done in a sterile operating suite 11 . A multicenter retrospective study on dogs undergoing surgery for thoracic trauma concluded that survival to discharge was 85.4% and that patients with an ATT score of <7 had odds of survival 5 times greater than patients with an ATT score ≥7 13 …”

Review of oncological emergencies in small animal patients

“…A patient that is unresponsive to crystalloid or colloid fluid resuscitation, has evidence of severe haemorrhage or has elevated clotting times should be given a blood product (Herold et al . ; Culp & Silverstein ). Transfusion therapy is a treatment option that a clinician may employ in the pre‐operative, perioperative or post‐operative period as an effort to stabilize a case with a haemoperitoneum.…”

“…Transfusion therapy is a treatment option that a clinician may employ in the pre‐operative, perioperative or post‐operative period as an effort to stabilize a case with a haemoperitoneum. Clinicians utilizing this therapy should aim to maintain the patient's haematocrit above 25% to stabilize signs of shock that are not responsive to fluid therapy and in the case of plasma transfusions to maintain clotting times within the normal range (Culp & Silverstein ). If blood products or a donor are not readily available, autologous blood transfusion (ABT) is another, albeit controversial, treatment option.…”

Delayed intestinal perforation secondary to blunt force abdominal trauma in a cat

“…Blunt force trauma in small animals is commonly due to motor vehicle accidents. 1 To our knowledge, there are no reports describing motor vehicle injuries in cats alone. In a study describing motor vehicle injuries in both dogs and cats, the only abdominal injury reported was diaphragmatic hernia, noted in 4% of the cases.…”