Emergency Management of Head and Spinal Trauma

Severe head and spinal injury are among the most challenging problems that present to the small animal practitioner. Often, neurologic injury is accompanied by other serious life-threatening problems including pneumothorax, pulmonary contusions, hemoabdomen and fractures. Many of the animals have sustained multiple trauma and are in hypovolemic shock at the time of presentation. Head injury may be so severe that localization of head or spinal lesions, then considering an accurate prognosis are difficult. The treatment of any patient with head and spinal injury involves making an accurate assessment to identify the extent of injury, prevention of further damage to the brain and spinal cord, and maintenance of cerebral perfusion pressure and end-organ function. Many cerebral injuries and spinal injuries with intact deep pain perception can carry an overall favorable prognosis with aggressive nursing care and tincture of time. Other types of injuries such as thoracolumbar spinal injury with loss of deep pain sensation are more clear-cut, but offer a less favorable prognosis ...