Animal and human bite injuries: a 5-year retrospective study in a large urban public hospital in Venezuela.

INTRODUCTION

Animal bite injuries to the head and neck regions are an important public health problem. Most of these bites are from dogs. A 10-year retrospective study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of animal and human bites.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This retrospective study was done from January 2011 to December 2016 and included 387 patients with a mean age of 21.51 years. Data collection included age, sex, days of hospitalization, lesion type, and clinical management.

RESULTS

Majority of patients were in age group of 21-29 years, followed by 31-55 years. Out of the total 281 patients, 42 patients (51.60%) were males and 34 patients (48.40%) were females. Mean hospital stay was 7.2 days with a minimum of 5 days and a maximum of 12 days. Surgical management included cleansing and primary closure of the wound.

CONCLUSIONS

We concluded that the use of empiric antibiotic prophylaxis is essential for management of facial animal bite, and the antibiotic of first choice is amoxicillin-clavulanic acid. The aim of immediate surgical repair (< 6 h) is to avoid infections. The persistence of dog bite is public health problem in Venezuela.