Retrospective study on the incidence of spinal injuries by computed tomographic scan. Part I: Cervical and Cervicothoracic.

Abstract

Injuries involving the spine are frequent in dogs and knowledge of them is important to define the patient's treatment and prognosis. The objective was to trace the epidemiological profile of lesions in the cervical and cervicothoracic spine diagnosed through tomographic examination. Compilation of computed tomography (CT) reports for the referred regions was carried out in a diagnostic center between 01/04/2017 and 30/04/2020, with or without contrast, from the clinical routine, in order to relate the lesions, races and locations more common. A total of 1164 CT scans were performed in the period, 670 (57.56%) for the spine, with 601 reports accessed (89.7%), where both regions referred to here totaled 162 studies (26.95%). Male mixed-breed dogs showed the most lesions. For the cervical spine, the most identified lesion was disk extrusion and the most affected site was C3-C4, while the mean age for lesions was 8.09±3.55 years. As for cervicothoracic, disk mineralization was more frequent and the mean age for lesions was 6.96±2.93 years. It was concluded that the spine is the main target of CT scans, that lesions related to the intervertebral disk were the main ones identified, and older MBD (mixed-breed dogs) animals are the main ones affected.