Objective: The primary objective of this study is to identify the nature of dog bite injuries treated over a five-year period at a large tertiary pediatric hospital and to identify critical parameters for public education and injury prevention.
Methods: Investigators performed a retrospective review of emergency room records of a single tertiary pediatric hospital. Records of all pediatric patients who were evaluated for dog bite injuries sustained between April 2001 and December 2005 were reviewed. Demographic details, including the victim's age, breed of dog, anatomical location of injury, number of wounds, and relationship of patient to dog, were recorded.
Results: 551 patients aged 5 months to 18 years were treated in the emergency department after suffering dog bite injuries during the study period. The majority of such injuries (62.8%) were sustained by male children. Dog bite injuries were most prevalent during the summer months of June and July (24.1%). Grade school-aged children (6-12 years) constitute the majority of dog bite victims (51%), followed by preschoolers (2-5 years; 24.0%), teenagers (13-18 years; 20.5%), and infants (birth-1 year; 4.5%). The majority of dog bite injuries among infants and preschoolers affected the face (53.5%), whereas older children mostly sustained injuries to the extremities (60.7%). Hospitalization was required for over 30 patients, and 110 consultations were requested by the Emergency Department from a variety of subspecialty disciplines. More than 30 different offending breeds were documented in the medical records. Of those cases for which a breed was recorded, however, the majority was caused by pit bull terriers (50.9%), Rottweilers (8.9%), and mixed breeds involving at least one of the two aforementioned breeds (6%). The majority of dogs (68.8%) were familiar to their victims.
Conclusions: Pediatric dog bites are preventable injuries, yet they persist as a prevalent public health problem. Evaluation of data from high-volume tertiary pediatric health care institutions identifies predictable patterns of injury with respect to patient age and gender, animal breed, provocation, and seasonality. Such will allow for the development of more effective prevention strategies, including programs for community outreach and education.