Summary: In today's VETgirl online veterinary continuing education podcast, we review prognostic factors in dogs with head trauma based off a recent study by Sharma et al entitled “Retrospective evaluation of prognostic indicators in dogs with head trauma.” Many of us in emergency practice see head trauma patients and would agree that the prognosis for these patients can be difficult to predict. Some dogs or cats admitted with signs of traumatic brain injury make astounding turnarounds, whereas others do not seem to respond to therapy. Studies investigating veterinary patients with head trauma are relatively sparse. A study investigating the utility of a modified Glasgow coma scale score (MGCS) was published back in 2001 and showed an almost linear correlation between the score and mortality. Alternatively, large studies investigating the utility of the Animal Trauma Triage (ATT) score have been published recently, but this score has not been specifically investigated in a population of head trauma patients. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether clinical and laboratory variables or scoring systems such as the modified Glasgow coma scale, mentation, or ATT scores recorded at hospital admission have prognostic value in dogs with head trauma.
