Bear maul craniocerebral trauma in Kashmir Valley

Craniocerebral injuries constitute the bulk of the trauma patients in all the tertiary-care hospitals. Bear attacks as a cause of trauma to the brain and its protective covering are rare. This was a hospital-based retrospective (January 1990 to July 2005) and prospective study (August 2005 to December 2010). Craniocerebral trauma was seen in 49 patients of bear maul injuries. Loss of scalp tissue was seen in 17 patients, 13 of whom had exposed pericranium and needed split-thickness skin grafting, while 4 patients with exposed skull bones required scalp transposition flaps as an initial procedure. Skull bone fractures without associated brain injury were observed in 24 cases. Frontal bone was the site of fracture in the majority of cases (95%). Surgical intervention was needed in 18 patients for significantly depressed fractures. Three of these patients had depressed frontal bone fractures with underlying contusions and needed brain debridement and duraplasty. Injury to the brain was observed in 8 patients. Trauma to the brain and its protective coverings as a result of bear attacks is rarely known. Brain injury occurs less commonly as compared to soft tissue and bony injury. Craniocerebral trauma as a result of bear assaults has been a hitherto neglected area of trauma as the past reported incidence has been very low. Of late, the incidence and severity of such attacks has assumed grave proportions in areas adjacent to known bear habitats. An innocuous-looking surface wound might be the only presentation of an underlying severe brain trauma. Public awareness has to be generated to protect the people living in hilly areas.