A case report on initial image diagnosis of trauma from a lion attack

Abstract

People encounter fierce animals in other regions of the world, such as Africa, India, etc., but seldom do in Japan. We present a rare case of trauma due to a lion attack. In Japan, the most frequently reported trauma caused by large wild animals is bear-induced trauma, in which the majority of damage is to the upper body, especially the head, neck, and chest. Similarly, this case showed a large amount of damage to the head and neck, and other areas were scratched. While bear attacks often result in trauma from claws, lion victims are often bitten by fangs and the form of the injury resembles that of a bite by a dog or cat. Based on similarities between bear- and lion-caused injuries, and between dog-, cat-, and lion-induced trauma, we studied imaging methods for contrast CT examination in preparation for similar cases in the future.