Initial Approach to Polytrauma Patients

Speaker:  Speaker: Virginie Wurlod, Dr. med. vet. MSc, DACVECC, DECVECC

Assistant professor of small animal Emergency and Critical Care in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at Louisiana State University, USA. After graduating in 2008 from the University of Bern, Switzerland, Dr. Wurlod completed a small animal rotating internship and an Emergency and Critical Care (ECC) internship at the University of Bern. She then completed an ECC residency at the University of Illinois, USA. She became a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care in 2015, and a diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Emergency and Critical Care in 2016. After a year in private practice in United Kingdom, she joined Louisiana State University in November 2016. Her interests include transfusion medicine, renal replacement therapies and the use of intravenous lipid emulsion to treat intoxications.

Since joining Louisiana State University, she has been presenting at multiple local and state conferences, including Western Veterinary Conference, Southwest Veterinary Symposium, Louisiana Veterinary Medical Association 2019 Winter Meeting, 86^th and 87^th LSU Annual Conferences for Veterinarians and Veterinary Technicians, and Evening CEs for the Baton Rouge Area Veterinary Medical Association and the Acadiana Area Veterinary Medical Association.

Program: This program is designed to briefly review the concept of triage and initial diagnostics and stabilization procedures in.trauma patients. After attending this talk, veterinarians will be able to: Provide initial triage for polytrauma patients; Use the ABCD system to focus on life-threatening injuries and understand basic treatment options associated with these life-threatening injuries; Use a systemic approach to create a full problem list; Understand the principles of initial stabilization; Know the different basic diagnostic tools used to assess polytrauma patients during their initial assessment (Physical exam, PCV/TS, Lactate, pulse oximeter, aFAST and tFAST scans).