Hyena bite: A rare intriguing mode of maxillofacial injury, its management, risks involved, scenarios to avoid

Abstract

The striped hyena (Hyaena hyaena) is a rarely spotted carnivore in India listed as Near Threatened (red list) by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2014. Hyena is considered as scavenger but also executes rare opportunistic attacks on humans. In India, reported cases of hyena attack on humans are very rare, because of remote locations of these attacks majority of which go unreported to higher medical centres. This article describes about the circumstances and management of Hyena inflicted maxillofacial injury in North India, which is as per our knowledge first scientifically documented maxillofacial injury caused by Hyena in Indian subcontinent.