Background: Cavitary effusions are commonly encountered in dogs presenting for emergency care, though data describing patients with multicavitary effusion remain limited.
Hypothesis/
Objectives: Describe the clinicopathologic characteristics and underlying diseases in dogs with multicavitary effusion over a 10 year period.
Animals: A total of 124 dogs with multicavitary effusions were included retrospectively. Dogs were divided into 6 groups for analysis based on the underlying disease etiology: Neoplastic, gastrointestinal, cardiac, pulmonary, hepatic, and unclassified.
Methods: One-way ANOVA and Fisher’s Exact test were used to assess significant differences between groups for studied variables.
Results: Neoplastic disease was the most common underlying cause (44/124), followed by gastrointestinal (30/124), cardiac (24/124), pulmonary (7/124), and hepatic diseases (5/124). Effusions were bicavitary in 100/124 dogs and tricavitary in 24/124 dogs. Cases of bicavitary effusion involved pleural and peritoneal (80/100), peritoneal and pericardial (14/100), and pleural and pericardial (6/100) cavities. Variables that differed significantly between etiological groups included weight (p = 0.002), BUN (p < 0.001), serum total protein (p = 0.006), serum albumin (p < 0.001), serum cholesterol (p = 0.004), and total number of affected cavities (p < 0.001). When compared to dogs with gastrointestinal disease, dogs with cardiac disease were more likely to have tricavitary effusion (OR 32, 95% confidence interval, 0.6 – 252.0; p < 0.001).
Conclusions and Clinical Importance: Multicavitary effusion in dogs is most commonly due to neoplastic, gastrointestinal, or cardiac disease. Clinical variables may be useful in predicting disease etiology.
