At the Museum of Life and Science in Durham, North Carolina, USA, Yona, the museum’s yearling black bear, received a computed tomography (CT) scan in June 2010 to determine what was causing her angular limb deformity. A team of 20 people assisted with the procedure, including North Carolina State Veterinary Teaching Hospital staff, an orthopedic surgeon, Professor of Veterinary Orthopedics Denis Marcellin-Little, and Michael Stoskopf, DVM. The scan was performed using a Siemens SOMATOM^® Sensation 16 CT scanner, which enabled the team to achieve high image quality with reduced dose at a high speed.

Results revealed bone chips in Yona's right elbow, an injury that could have occurred before she came to the museum. She was found abandoned on the roadside in Tennessee in early 2009. “The CT scan is a very useful tool for diagnosing the kinds of problems Yona has,” says Stoskopf. While at the vet school, Yona was sedated for about 2.5 hours using a special anesthetic peanut butter, during which she had a CT scan, radiographs, blood work, dermatology exam – including skin scrape and punch biopsy-physical exam, manipulation of her limbs and more. Although Yona had injured her arm a long time ago, it is still growing. Her elbow is a little out of alignment, but it does not appear to be getting worse.

Marcellin-Little explains that Yona broke a piece of bone the size of an almond inside her elbow and that piece is moving around the joint. The fragment may have to be removed in the future. The excellent image quality provided by the SOMATOM Sensation scanner and the 3D rendering software allowed the team to virtually reconstruct limbs through the cross-sections, providing an almost immediate 3D assesment of Yona’s arm. Marcellin-Little reports, “We can see the cross-sections a lot better in 3D view, so we can […] kind of detect the presence of the fragment and look at the general shape of the bone and the general fit of the elbow joint. That’s very helpful.” According to the museum, Yona is now doing just fine. She’s on exhibit and continues to wrestle with Gus, the 4-year-old black bear, swim in the bear pool, climb the mulberry tree, and relax near the waterfall.