{"pk":15147,"title":"Surgical Treatment of Pediatric Dog-bite Wounds: A 5-year Retrospective Review","subtitle":null,"abstract":"Introduction: \nDog bites are a significant health concern in the pediatric population. Few studies published to date have stratified the injuries caused by dog bites based on surgical severity to elucidate the contributing risk factors.  \nMethods:\n We used an electronic hospital database to identify all patients ≤17 years of age treated for dog bites from 2013–2018. Data related to patient demographics, injury type, intervention, dog breed, and payer source were collected. We extracted socioeconomic data from the American Community Survey. Data related to dog breed was obtained from public records on dog licenses. We calculated descriptive statistics as well as relative risk of dog bite by breed.\nResults:\n Of 1,252 injuries identified in 967 pediatric patients, 17.1% required consultation with a surgical specialist for repair. Bites affecting the head/neck region were most common (61.7%) and most likely to require operating room intervention (P = 0.002). The relative risk of a patient being bitten in a low-income area was 2.24, compared with 0.46 in a high-income area. Among cases where the breed of dog responsible for the bite was known, the dog breed most commonly associated with severe bites was the pit bull (relative risk vs German shepherd 8.53, relative risk vs unknown, 3.28). \nConclusion: \nThe majority of injuries did not require repair and were sufficiently handled by an emergency physician. Repair by a surgical specialist was required <20% of the time, usually for bites affecting the head/neck region. Disparities in the frequency and characteristics of dog bites across socioeconomic levels and dog breeds suggest that public education efforts may decrease the incidence of pediatric dog bites.","language":"en","license":{"name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0","short_name":"CC BY 4.0","text":"Attribution — You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.\r\n\r\nNo additional restrictions — You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0"},"keywords":[{"word":"dog bite"},{"word":"pediatric emergency medicine"},{"word":"plastic surgery"}],"section":"Pediatrics","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/103520z2","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Christine","middle_name":"J.","last_name":"Lee","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of California – Irvine School of Medicine, Department of Plastic Surgery, Orange, California; Children’s Hospital Orange County, Division of Plastic Surgery, Orange, California","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Ekaterina","middle_name":"","last_name":"Tiourin","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of California – Irvine School of Medicine, Department of Plastic Surgery, Orange, California","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Sawyer","middle_name":"","last_name":"Schuljak","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of California - Riverside, School of Medicine, Riverside, California","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Jonathan","middle_name":"","last_name":"Phan","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of California - Riverside, School of Medicine, Riverside, California","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Theodore","middle_name":"W.","last_name":"Heyming","name_suffix":"","institution":"Children’s Hospital Orange County, Department of Emergency Medicine, Orange, California; University of California – Irvine School of Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, Orange, California","department":"None"},{"first_name":"John","middle_name":"","last_name":"Schomberg","name_suffix":"","institution":"Children’s Hospital Orange County, Department of Nursing, Orange, California","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Elizabeth","middle_name":"","last_name":"Wallace","name_suffix":"","institution":"Children’s Hospital Orange County, CHOC Research Institute, Orange, California","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Yigit","middle_name":"S.","last_name":"Guner","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of California – Irvine Medical Center, Department of Surgery, Irvine, California; Children’s Hospital Orange County, Division of Pediatric Surgery, Orange, California","department":"None"},{"first_name":"Raj","middle_name":"M.","last_name":"Vyas","name_suffix":"","institution":"University of California – Irvine School of Medicine, Department of Plastic Surgery, Orange, California; Children’s Hospital Orange County, Division of Plastic Surgery, Orange, California","department":"None"}],"date_submitted":"2021-02-22T20:09:37Z","date_accepted":"2021-02-22T20:09:37Z","date_published":"2021-10-27T18:44:27Z","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"","type":"pdf","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/westjem/article/15147/galley/7716/download/"}]}