A rare case of steering wheel injury causing coronal-plane pancreatic lacerations

The incidence of pancreatic injury after blunt abdominal trauma is extremely low. A timely and accurate diagnosis is important, as a delay could be life-threatening. In this case, a 70-year-old driver crashed a car into a concrete wall at low speed. He was transported to the emergency hospital but died about 9.5h later with the cause of death unknown. An autopsy revealed that his pancreas was lacerated in the coronal plane and there was mesenteric contusion. Cause of death was determined to be blood loss resulting from pancreatic and mesenteric contusion. The mechanism of the injury was considered to be a very rare "degloving," caused by the impact from the steering wheel. It is therefore important to keep in mind possible pancreatic damage when examining blunt trauma to the abdomen, especially in traffic accident cases.