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The goals of the Veterinary Committee on Trauma (VetCOT) trauma registry are to (1) inform improvement of veterinary and human trauma patient care and (2) design clinical and preclinical trials that could inform go/no go decisions for interventional strategies and tools. The VetCOT registry was established in 2013, and includes all trauma cases that present to Veterinary Trauma Centers. Veterinary Trauma Centers are well-resourced veterinary hospitals that are initially identified, then subsequently verified, by the American College of Veterinary and Emergency Critical Care VetCOT (http://vetcot.org/index.php/home/identification-and-verification-process/). As of June 2019, there are > 40,000 dog and cat cases in the registry, 3 publications and 9 ongoing projects utilizing data from the registry. Application materials to utilize VetCOT registry data is available on the VetCOT website (http://vetcot.org/index.php/home/registry-use-materials/)., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To report summative data from the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Veterinary Committee on Trauma (VetCOT) registry., Design: Multi-institutional veterinary trauma registry data report., Setting: VetCOT identified veterinary trauma centers (VTCs)., Animals: Dogs and cats with evidence of trauma presented to VTCs with data entered in the VetCOT registry September 1, 2013-March 31, 2017., Interventions: VetCOT created a standardized data collection methodology for dog and cat trauma. Data were input to a web-based data capture system (REDCap) by data entry personnel trained in data software use and operational definitions of data variables. Data on demographics, trauma type (blunt vs penetrating), preadmission care, hospitalization and intensive care requirement, trauma severity assessment at presentation (eg, modified Glasgow coma scale and animal trauma triage score), key laboratory parameters, necessity for surgical intervention, and case outcome were collected. Summary descriptive data for each species are reported., Measurements and Main Results: Twenty-nine VTCs in North America, Europe, and Australia contributed information from 17,335 dog and 3,425 cat trauma cases during the 42-month reporting period. A large majority of cases presented directly to the VTC after injury (80.4% dogs and 78.1% cats). Blunt trauma was the most common source for injury in cats (56.7%); penetrating trauma was the most common source for injury in dogs (52.3%). Note that 43.8% of dogs and 36.2% of cats were reported to have surgery performed. The proportion surviving to discharge was 92.0% (dogs) and 82.5% (cats)., Conclusions: The VetCOT registry proved to be a powerful resource for collection of a large dataset on trauma in dogs and cats seen at VTCs. While overall survival to discharge was quite high, further evaluation of data on subsets of injury types, patient assessment parameters, interventions, and associated outcome are warranted., (© Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care Society 2018.)

OBJECTIVE To determine the most common types of injuries in cats surgically treated for thoracic trauma, complications associated with surgical treatment, and factors associated with mortality rate and evaluate the effectiveness of the animal trauma triage (ATT) scoring system for predicting outcome. DESIGN Retrospective case series with nested observational study. ANIMALS 23 client-owned cats surgically treated for thoracic trauma at 7 veterinary teaching hospitals between 1990 and 2014. PROCEDURES Medical records were reviewed to collect data on signalment, medical history, clinical signs and physical examination findings at initial evaluation, clinicopathologic findings, initial emergency treatments and diagnostic tests performed, type of trauma sustained, imaging findings, surgery details, postoperative complications, duration of hospitalization, and cause of death, if applicable. All variables were evaluated for associations with survival to hospital discharge. RESULTS Types of trauma that cats had sustained included dog bite or attack (n = 8 [35%]), motor vehicle accident (6 [26%]), other animal attack (2 [9%]), impalement injury or fall (2 [9%]), projectile penetrating trauma (1 [4%]), or unknown origin (4 [17%]). Intrathoracic surgery was required for 65% (15/23) of cats. The overall perioperative mortality rate was 13% (3/23). Mean ± SD ATT scores for surviving and nonsurviving cats were 6.4 ± 2.2 and 10.0 ± 1.7, respectively. Nineteen of 20 cats with no cardiopulmonary arrest survived to discharge, compared with 1 of 3 cats with cardiopulmonary arrest. Only these 2 variables were significantly associated with outcome. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE The perioperative mortality rate was low in this series of cats with thoracic trauma; however, those with cardiopulmonary arrest were less likely to survive to hospital discharge than other cats. Cats with a low ATT score were more likely to survive than cats with a high ATT score.

Objective: To assess the suitability of the intramedullary interlocking nail to stabilise humeral diaphyseal fractures in dogs and cats., Method: This multi-centre study retrospectively examined medical records, between June 1994 and May 2001, of 19 dogs and one cat, in which a total of 21 humeral fractures were stabilised with intramedullary interlocking nails., Results: Animals ranged in body-weight from 4 to 97 kg. Eighteen (86%) of the fractures were comminuted. Adjunctive stabilisation was used in twelve (57%) fractures and bone grafts in nine (43%) fractures. A rapid return of function was noted in the majority of animals, with 14 (67%) having good or excellent function within four days of surgery. In two fractures the repair collapsed when a single proximal transcortical screw was placed cranial to the tricipital line of the humerus. This suggests that if a single transcortical screw is placed proximally the screw should be distal or caudal to the tricipital line in order to engage sufficient cortical bone. Eighteen (86%) of the fractures healed when stabilised with intramedullary interlocking nails. Three fractures did not heal. One was in a dog where a pathological fracture was temporarily stabilised with an intramedullary interlocking nail, one in a dog that died of an abdominal crisis three weeks after surgery and one in a dog in which fracture stabilisation collapsed due to incorrect implant selection., Conclusion: Intramedullary interlocking nails are well suited to the stabilisation of humeral diaphyseal fractures in dogs and cats.