@article{ref1,
title="Animal and human bite injuries: a 5-year retrospective study in a large urban public hospital in Venezuela",
journal="Oral and maxillofacial surgery",
year="2017",
author="Gelvez, Muñoz and Enrique, Ruben and Gajos, Golaszewski and Bladimir, Jose and Carvajal, Diaz and Luis, Alvaro",
volume="21",
number="4",
pages="425-428",
abstract="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. <br><br>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. <br><br>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. <br><br>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.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1865-1550",
doi="10.1007/s10006-017-0650-1",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10006-017-0650-1"
}