TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2017//
TI  - Animal and human bite injuries: a 5-year retrospective study in a large urban public hospital in Venezuela
JO  - Oral and maxillofacial surgery
A1  - Gelvez, Muñoz
A1  - Enrique, Ruben
A1  - Gajos, Golaszewski
A1  - Bladimir, Jose
A1  - Carvajal, Diaz
A1  - Luis, Alvaro
SP  - 425
EP  - 428
VL  - 21
IS  - 4
N2  - 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>
LA  - en
SN  - 1865-1550
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10006-017-0650-1
ID  - ref1
ER  -