Studio retrospettivo su 103 cani e 172 gatti afferiti per trauma (2018-2022)

Abstract

This retrospective study describes a population of dogs and cats referred to Ospedale Veterinario Universitario Didattico (OVUD) of University of Parma, with a suspicion or certainty diagnosis of of trauma. The purpose of this study is to analyze the short-term outcome of traumatized patients and its correlation with the type of injury, the type of trauma, and other clinical and clinical-pathologic variables. The final aim is to verify the presence of possible prognostic factors for the short-term outcome of the patients among these variables. On a total of 878 animals referred to OVUD in a period between January 1 st 2018 and March 31st 2022, only 103 dogs and 172 cats met the inclusion criteria. In both study populations, patients were primarily adults, with a median age of 6,4 years for dogs and 4,1 years for cats. There was no significant difference between females and males. In both populations, the main type of trauma was motor vehicle accident, counting 60% of dogs and 65% of cats. The survival rate was excellent, with 87,5% of survivor dogs and 89% of survivor cats. The main type of injury was skeletal trauma, counting 51% of dogs and 61% of cats: in this body region, hindlimb luxation/fractures for dogs and pelvic-sacral fractures/luxations were the most frequent injuries. However, this type of injury was not negatively correlated with the outcome. The principal cause of death was abdominal trauma and, in particular, the most frequent injuries were hepatic contusion, abdominal hernia and hemoabdomen. Among the clinical-pathological variables, the presence of hyperlactatemia resulted a negative prognostic factor in dogs. However, no prognostic factor has been identified in cats.