Editorials

"I've just been bitten by a dog"

Mammalian bites have a sinister reputation for causing tissue damage and infection. Although human bites have the greatest potential for local injury–because of the varied and virulent flora of pathogenic organisms in the mouth and the propensity for association with a crush injury–dog bites are numerically the most common.¹ They account for 1-2 million injuries in America each year² and about 200 000 cases in Britain.³ In addition, many victims regard their injury as too insignificant to seek medical help initially. A small number may then go on to develop overwhelming systemic infection, as reported in this week's BMJ by Mellor et al (p 129).⁴ This suggests that dog bites can only be regarded as trivial in retrospect. What then should be the advice to patients, general practitioners, minor injuries units, and accident and emergency departments in terms of safe guidelines for management?

The treatment of dog bites is twofold: . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Dog bites

Marina Morgan and John Palmer
BMJ 2007 334: 413-417. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Low, S. C.-M., Greenwood, J. E. (2008). Capnocytophaga canimorsus: infection, septicaemia, recovery and reconstruction. J Med Microbiol 57: 901-903 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• Morgan, M., Palmer, J. (2007). Dog bites. BMJ 334: 413-417 [Full text]  
• Smith, M R, Walker, A, Brenchley, J (2003). Barking up the wrong tree? A survey of dog bite wound management. Emerg. Med. J. 20: 253-255 [Abstract] [Full text]  
• GRANT, I., BELCHER, H. J. C. R. (2000). Injuries to the Hand from Dog Bites. J Hand Surg Eur Vol 25: 26-28 [Abstract]  
• Jones, N., Khoosal, M., Numazaki, K., Chiba, S., Ueno, H., Fleisher, G. R. (1999). Infected Dog and Cat Bites. NEJM 340: 1841-1842 [Full text]  

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Hindsight

Ernest M. Fischer
bmj.com, 25 Oct 2003 [Full text]