Treating a patient with lower limb injury from shark attack – a case report

Abstract

Background: Every year a number of people are attacked by sharks worldwide; however, death as a consequence is quite unusual. In recent years, the number of reported shark attacks worldwide has been around 67 per year with fatalities averaging 5 persons annually. Shark attacks in the Adriatic Sea are very rare.Case report: In 2008, a great white shark attack happened in the Adriatic Sea, in which a man suffered a severe injury to his lower extremity and profuse bleeding that led to haemorrhagic shock.Conclusion: The expeditious intervention at the site of attack and the exemplary cooperation of medical teams in two centres in the neighbouring countries of Croatia and Slovenia has saved the life of the unusually injured patient and resulted in a satisfactory functional outcome.

Keywords

• bite wound
• debridement
• skin grafting
• vacuumassisted closure
• hyperbaric oxygen therapy