Swordfish bill injury involving abdomen and vertebral column: case report and review

In this case report we present the unique, as far as the literature is concerned, unprovoked woman's injury to the abdomen by a swordfish. There are only four cases of swordfish attacks on humans in the literature - one resulted to thoracic trauma, two to head trauma and one to knee trauma, one of which was fatal - none of which were unprovoked. Three victims were professional or amateur fishermen whereas in the last reported case the victim was a bather as in our case. Our case is the only case where organic debris of animal's origin remained in the spinal canal after penetrating trauma.Although much has been written about the management of penetrating abdominal and spinal cord trauma, controversy remains about the optimal management. Moreover, there is little experience in the management of patients with such spinal injuries, due to the fact that such cases are extremely rare. In this report we focus on the patient's treatment with regard to abdominal and spinal trauma and present a review of the literature.Penetrating injuries, although less common than blunt trauma due to motor vehicle accidents, are important causes of injury to the abdomen and vertebral column.Civilian penetrating injuries are usually related to road traffic, labor and domestic accidents, violent actions, iatrogenic impaction of dental and surgical materials and instruments, and certain types of sports. The majority of civilian deep penetrating foreign body injuries described in the literature involve wood and metal objects.There are only four cases of swordfish attacks on humans in the literature - one resulted to thoracic trauma [1], two to head trauma [2,3] and one to knee trauma [4], one of which was fatal - none of these were unprovoked. Three victims were professional or amateur fishermen and one victim was a bather. We present here a unique, according to the literature, case of a woman who was injured in the abdomen by a swordfish. It is the only case of unprovoked swordfish attack on h