Pediatric Dog Bites: A Review of 1422 Cases Treated at a Level One Regional Pediatric Trauma Center

Background:Children under the age of 14 account for over 40% of the almost 900,000 annual hospital visits associated with dog bites. Care for dog bites ranges from simple wound irrigation to complex surgical reconstruction. Due to a number of factors, children frequently sustain dog bites to highly vulnerable regions, often necessitating intervention by plastic surgeons.Methods:This retrospective study analyzed data from the 1422 pediatric patients who sustained dog bites and presented to the Le Bonheur Children's Hospital Emergency Room from January 2011 to May 2017.Results:The typical pediatric dog bite case was male (63.5%), African-American (57.4%), and less than 10 years old (69.4%). The head and neck were the most commonly affected areas (64.7%). Of the head and neck regions, the cheeks and lips were the most frequently injured structures (34.5%). Hospital admission was required for 188 patients (13.2%) and operative repair was deemed necessary in 16.9% of all cases. Of the patients requiring inpatient operative repair, most (78.3%) were discharged in less than 24 hours. Operative complications occurred in 5.8% of all cases, with infections accounting for the majority (92.9%). No fatal dog bites occurred in this study.Conclusions:Age, bite location, and number of bites sustained are several factors of significance, which may aid the novice plastic surgeon in identifying, which pediatric dog bite cases will require surgical intervention.