In search of evidence in small animal emergency medicine--a specialty of its own.

Abstract

Over the last few years there has been increasing emphasis on the practice of evidence based medicine (EBM) in veterinary practice. Whilst there are detractors as well as proponents, EBM can only be beneficial for our patients. The value and practice of EBM has been recently discussed in this journal (Ness 2009) and rather than repeat its pros and cons, this editorial highlights how, and if, we can incorporate EBM into an area of veterinary medicine where the evidence base is limited, namely emergency medicine. There has been a growing interest in veterinary emergency medicine in recent years, an area traditionally not considered to be a speciality in its own right. With growing specialisation within disciplines such as nephrology and urology is it time to consider emergency medicine a speciality of its own? In medical practice it is well described that what you do at first presentation can make a difference to outcome. Whilst there has been rapid expansion in the veterinary evidence base, in the smaller fields such as emergency medicine there is still little published information to guide decision making. The advent of pet insurance and wide availability of veterinary information on the internet has created more informed and demanding clients. Enhanced owner expectation is driving a need to improve the evidence base in areas such as emergency and critical care medicine.