Traumatic pericardial rupture with secondary cardiac herniation in a dog.

This is the first case report in the veterinary literature of traumatic pericardial rupture and cardiac herniation. According to human case descriptions, this is a rare and often fatal occurrence, which can be significantly challenging to diagnose preoperatively or antemortem. Emergency veterinary clinicians should be aware of this rare but important complication of blunt thoracic trauma. Surgical intervention may be necessary in cases with suspected or confirmed entrapment of great vessels or cardiac chambers, although these abnormalities were not present in this case.