A Rare Case of Isolated Auricular Injury Caused by a Tree Branch During a Traffic Accident

This study was presented at XI. National Emergency Medicine Congress 16-19 April 2015 Antalya, Turkey Address for Correspondence: Selvet Erdogan, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Kocaeli University School of Medicine, Kocaeli, Turkey E-mail: sel-erdogan@hotmail.com ©Copyright 2016 by Emergency Physicians Association of Turkey Available online at www.jemcr.org Introduction Traffic accidents represent an important component of emergency admissions, and many different injuries are noted. The average number of traffic accidents has been about 1.1 million annually over the last 5 years in Turkey; of these, approximately 140.000 were fatal (1). Head and neck injuries are the most common cause of death. In cases of head and neck injuries that cause morbidity, most involve drivers and frontseat passengers (2, 3). In the present report, we present a rare isolated example of a penetrating neck trauma caused by a tree branch during a car accident, commencing in the temporal region and extending from the external auditory canal and retromandibular area.