Trauma is a leading reason that dogs and cats present to veterinarians, and a leading cause of death in dogs, cats, and people. Efforts to improve outcomes in trauma patients extend from the patients’ bedside to single- and multi-center research and organizational efforts. Areas ripe for ongoing advancement include improving outcomes in traumatic hemorrhage and traumatic brain injury; developing and identifying tools and resources to improve austere trauma care; and improved application of identified advancements (dissemination and implementation). Progress in research discovery pathways with respect to omics sciences (i.e., genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics) open the possibility of moving closer to advancing individualized care for the most severely injured trauma patients. Additionally, there is opportunity to leverage naturally occurring trauma in dogs (and cats) to enhance translational research efforts for pets and people. Naturally occurring trauma, as well as the trauma resulting from invasive surgical procedures, results in systemic responses that follow similar physiologic pathways and affect patient outcomes. This lecture focuses on the above topics and serves as an introduction to the series of lectures to follow regarding surgical timing, pathophysiology of hemorrhage, and panel discussions on both complicated cases, and cases with complications.
