title: Grievous temporal and occipital injury caused by a bear attack.
abstract: Bear attacks are reported from nearly every part of the world. The chance of a human encountering a bear increases as the remote bear territory diminishes. The sloth bear is one of the three species of bears found in India, which inhabits the forests of India and its neighboring countries. Here we describe a teenager who came to us with a critical injury involving the face, temporal and occipital bones inflicted by a sloth bear attack. He underwent a temporal exploration, facial nerve decompression, pinna reconstruction, and occipital bone repair to save him from fatality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, First Floor, Nethravathi Building, Balmatta, Mangalore, Karnataka 575001, India.
authors.forename: Sampath Chandra
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Prasad
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, First Floor, Nethravathi Building, Balmatta, Mangalore, Karnataka 575001, India.
authors.forename: Nikhil Dinaker
authors.initials: ND
authors.lastname: Thada
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiodiagnosis, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, Attavar, Mangalore, Karnataka 575002, India.
authors.forename: Pallavi
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rao
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Medicine & Radiology, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal University, Madhava Nagar, Manipal, Karnataka 576104, India.
authors.forename: Smitha Rani
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Thada
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University, First Floor, Nethravathi Building, Balmatta, Mangalore, Karnataka 575001, India.
authors.forename: Kishore Chandra
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Prasad