@article{ref1,
title="Pediatric patients with dog bites presenting to US children's hospitals",
journal="Injury epidemiology",
year="2021",
author="Ramgopal, Sriram and Macy, Michelle L.",
volume="8",
number="1",
pages="e55-e55",
abstract="BACKGROUND: To characterize pediatric dog bite injuries presenting to US children's hospitals and identify factors associated with clinically significant injuries. <br><br>METHODS: We performed a multicenter observational study from 26 pediatric hospitals between July 1, 2010, and June 30, 2020, including patients ≤ 18 years with dog bites, consolidating together encounters from patients with multiple encounters within 30 days as a single episode of care. We characterized diagnoses and procedures performed in these patients. We used generalized linear mixed models to identify factors associated with a composite outcome that we term clinically significant injuries (defined as admission, operating room charge, sedation, fractures/dislocations, intracranial/eye injury, skin/soft tissue infection, or in-hospital mortality). <br><br>RESULTS: 68,833 episodes were included (median age 6.6 years [interquartile range 3.5-10.4 years], 55.5% male) from 67,781 patients. We identified 16,502 patients (24.0%) with clinically significant injuries, including 6653 (9.7%) admitted, 5080 (7.4%) managed in the operating room, 11,685 (17.0%) requiring sedation, 493 (0.7%) with a skull fracture, 32 (0.0%) with a fracture in the neck or trunk, 389 (0.6%) with a fracture of the upper limb, 51 (0.1%) with a fracture in the lower limb, 15 (0.0%) with dislocations, 66 (0.1%) with an intracranial injury and 164 (0.2%) with an injury to the eyeball, 3708 (5.4%) with skin/soft tissue infections, and 5 (0.0%) with in-hospital mortality. In multivariable analysis, younger age (0-4 years, 5-9 years, and 10-14 years relative to 15-18 years), weekday injuries, and an income in the second and third quartiles (relative to the lowest quartile) had higher odds of clinically significant injuries. Black patients (relative to White), Hispanic/Latino ethnicity, and private insurance status (relative to public insurance) had lower odds of clinically important injuries. When evaluating individual components within the composite outcome, most followed broader trends. <br><br>CONCLUSION: Dog bites are an important mechanism of injury encountered in children's hospitals. Using a composite outcome measure, we identified younger, White, non-Hispanic children at higher risk of clinically significant injuries. <br><br>FINDINGS with respect to race and ethnicity and dog bite injuries warrant further investigation. <br><br>RESULTS can be used to identify populations for targeted prevention efforts to reduce severe dog bite injuries.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2197-1714",
doi="10.1186/s40621-021-00349-3",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40621-021-00349-3"
}