Management of the head trauma case

Head trauma is relatively rare in horses, compared with humans and small animals. This is because of the lower risk of road traffic accidents in the case of small animals and the lower risk of falling from things (including horses!) and vehicle-related trauma in the case of humans. The major risks for horses are rearing and falling over, kicks from other horses and colliding with a stationary object such as a wall or fence. Horses less than 12 months old appear over-represented in the group that have head injury due to rearing and falling [1]. Head trauma is divided into penetrating and nonpenetrating (also called open and closed). The most common object that causes brain penetration in humans is fractured bone from the skull, but other objects such as bullets and knives can also result in open head trauma. Penetrating injury usually results in a localised severe brain injury. In nonpenetrating trauma, the force of the blow often causes a diffuse injury. There can be accompanying skull fracture that does not penetrate the brain ...