In human medicine, central nervous system (CNS) concussion is defined as a transient neurological dysfunction following a traumatic event, without evidence of structural abnormalities of the affected region on advanced diagnostic imaging. Depending on the anatomical district involved, three forms of concussive syndromes are described: brain concussion, spinal concussion and cerebellar concussion. Although major textbooks of veterinary neurology admit the existence of canine brain concussion, spontaneous cases of this pathological condition have not been reported so far in small animals. This report describes two cases of concussion in dogs: a 9-month-old, intact male, shih-tzu with brain concussion and one 10-month-old, intact male, poodle with cerebellar concussion. In addition, a brief review of the definition of the term concussion in veterinary medical literature is provided, in comparison to its meaning in human medical literature. Finally, this paper proposes an appropriate definition of concussion in dogs, that may facilitate clinicians in the recognition of such elusive syndrome.
Key words: Key words: concussion, contusion, dog, brain, spine, cerebellar, magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography
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