Abstract: Objective: Animal bites and scratches are one of the most common traumatic injuries in the oral and maxillofacial regions. However, there is still controversy over whether primary closure should be performed on patients with animal bites and scratches in the oral and maxillofacial regions. To clarify the therapeutic effect of primary closure for facial animal scratches, this study will report one case of primary closure for bear scratches. Diagnosis and treatment: A 49-year-old male patient visited the hospital 20 hours after being scratched by a bear on the face. He had received tetanus, rabies immunoglobulin, and rabies vaccine 12 hours earlier. In this study the wound debridement and primary closure was performed immediately at the first visit. Wound infection and aesthetic recovery were recorded during the follow-up. Results: The results showed that the patient underwent primary closure had no postoperative wound infection and got satisfactory scar recovery.Conclusions: For patients with facial animal scratches that can be thoroughly debridement, primary closure can improve postoperative aesthetic function without increasing wound infection rate, thereby reducing the appearance, physiological, and psychological trauma caused by the trauma to the patient.

Key words: facial injuries, bites and scratches, debridement, infection, injury recovery