@article{ref1,
title="Pediatric animal-related injuries in the Jewish and Arab population in southern  Israel",
journal="Harefuah",
year="2020",
author="Fruchtman, Yariv and Perry, Zvi and Elmaquai, Omer and Schwartz, Dagan and Leibovitz, Eugene",
volume="159",
number="12",
pages="876-881",
abstract="INTRODUCTION: Annually in the US, about 2 million patients who are animal-related  casualties go to the Emergency Medicine Department (ER), which accounts for 0.5-1.5%  of the ER visits; 25% of these casualties are children. Similar numbers are also  seen in Europe and the UK. In a single-center study in Israel, it was found that the  percentage of ER visits for animal injuries was about 2.1%. Soroka University  Hospital is the only Level I trauma center in the Negev, serving a population of  over 1,250,000, and as such it treats about 175,000 ER visits each year, of which  about 27% are pediatric visits. The population treated in our hospital is diverse in  terms of socioeconomic origin and status, and includes Jewish patients mainly  situated in urban settlements and Arab-Bedouin population living in familiar and  unfamiliar villages (the Bedouin diaspora). In light of this, in the present study,  we have tried to investigate animal injuries in children, emphasizing scorpion bites  which are common in our area. <br><br>METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the medical  records of all children aged 0-17 years during an 18-month study period - from  January 2009 until the end of June 2010 - to identify children who have been  referred to the ER at the Soroka Hospital due to animal injury. Demographics,  characteristics of the injury, incidence times and referral to treatment, and data  on the course of assessment and treatment of the injury and hospitalization were  recorded. Data was typed and processed using Microsoft Excel 2007 software and we  used SPSS 23.0 for Windows for the statistical analysis. <br><br>RESULTS: A total of 729  pediatric injuries caused by animals were reported, which accounted for about 1% of  the total number of children's visits to the pediatric ER during the study period. Twenty-six cases were omitted because they did not meet the inclusion criteria in  the study. Of the remaining 703 referrals, 66.1% of the patients were boys, the peak  age was in the 6-8-year age group (26%); 44.1% lived in a Jewish settlement, 31.2%  in an unrecognized Arab-Bedouin settlement and 24% in a recognized Arab-Bedouin  settlement. In both forms of Bedouin settlements, the most frequent injuries were  dog bites n = 166, (23.60%), yellow scorpion bites = 163 (23.2%) and black scorpion  bites n = 44 (6.25%); 97 of the children were admitted (13.8%), of whom 44 were  admitted to the ICU, with 84.1% of those admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU)  were treated due to yellow scorpion injury. The 2-5-year age group was the most  prevalent among inpatients, accounting for 32. <br><br>DISCUSSION: Pediatric animal injuries  are a common cause of ER visits and even hospitalization. A relatively high  percentage of hospitalizations were in the ICU. The most common cause of animal  injury seen in our cohort was dog bites, but yellow scorpion bites resulted in most  hospitalizations, especially in the pediatric ICU. The incidence of yellow scorpion  injuries was significantly higher in the Arab-Bedouin population and even more so in  those living in unrecognized settlements, and 87% of the pediatric hospitalizations  were seen in Arabic-Bedouin children. Animal-related injuries are a serious health  problem in the Arab-Bedouin population and in the unrecognized villages in  particular, and there is room to emphasize the prevention of these injuries in this  impoverished sector.<p /> <p>Language: he</p>",
language="he",
issn="0017-7768",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}