Multicenter prospective evaluation of dogs with trauma

Area of Science:

• Veterinary Medicine
• Emergency and Critical Care
• Canine Traumatology

Background:

• Trauma is a common cause of mortality in dogs.
• Accurate prognostic indicators are crucial for guiding treatment decisions in emergency veterinary care.
• Existing scoring systems may not fully capture the complexity of canine trauma outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify key hospital admission variables for dogs with traumatic injuries.
• To evaluate the predictive value of scoring systems (Animal Trauma Triage [ATT], modified Glasgow Coma Scale [MGCS], Acute Patient Physiologic and Laboratory Evaluation [APPLE]) for patient outcome.
• To determine the usefulness of these variables for predicting survival to hospital discharge.

Main Methods:

• A prospective, multicenter cohort study involving 315 client-owned dogs with trauma.
• Data including ATT, MGCS, and APPLE scores, clinical, and laboratory parameters were collected via a web-based system at four veterinary teaching hospitals.
• Outcome (survival to discharge) was recorded over an eight-week period.

Main Results:

• Blunt trauma was the most common injury type (54.9%). Overall survival to discharge was high (90.5%).
• Dogs with blunt trauma had a significantly higher survival rate than those with penetrating trauma (OR, 8.5).
• Admission ATT scores (OR, 2.0), MGCS scores (OR, 0.47), and blood lactate concentration (OR, 1.5) were predictive of outcome. Surgical intervention was associated with survival (OR, 7.1).

Conclusions:

• The Animal Trauma Triage (ATT) and modified Glasgow Coma Scale (MGCS) scores are valuable tools for predicting outcomes in traumatized dogs.
• Penetrating trauma, low blood lactate, and the performance of surgical procedures are significant predictors of survival.
• The study demonstrated an efficient method for collecting comprehensive data on a large canine trauma population in a short timeframe.