Two Cases of Injuries with Porcupine Quill

Abstract

Introduction: Injury is a common reason for admission to the emergency department, but injuries which are caused by a part of a wild animal are extremely rare. Porcupinesare rodents that live in Asia, Africa, and Mediterranean countries, as well as in the Mediterranean and South East Anatolian regionsof Turkey. Although there are many injuries reported in animals, only a small number of injuries have been reported for humans in the literature.

Case Report: We report two cases of porcupine quill injuries. One case is a 17 year old boy and the other is a 5 year old girl. The quill was approximately in 3 cm deep at the dorsum of the foot in the physical examination of the boy. In the second case, while she was playing with porcupine quill, it penetrated the periumblical area of her abdomen when she fell on it.

Conclusion: Porcupine quill spikes cause serious penetrating injury in areas where humans live and hunt. Therefore, porcupine arrows should be considered as cutting tools, and thus should be stored in a protected place. Porcupine arrows in a random environment may cause dangerous injury which is presented in our study.