Animal-related injuries: Epidemiological and meteorological features


Emet M., BEYHUN N. E., KOŞAN Z., Aslan S., Uzkeser M., Cakir Z. G.

Annals of Agricultural and Environmental Medicine, cilt.16, sa.1, ss.87-92, 2009 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 16 Sayı: 1
  • Basım Tarihi: 2009
  • Dergi Adı: Annals of Agricultural and Environmental Medicine
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Sayfa Sayıları: ss.87-92
  • Anahtar Kelimeler: animal-related injuries, epidemiology, meteorology, humidity, temperature, bite, sting, EMERGENCY-DEPARTMENTS, IXODES-RICINUS, BITE, AGRICULTURE, TEMPERATURE, PREVENTION, TRAUMA, TICK
  • Karadeniz Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır

Özet

This is a retrospective and registry-based descriptive study including animal-related injuries represented by the most crowded Emergency Department (ED) in Eastern Turkey over a period of two years. Animal-related injuries were 0.2% of all ED admittances; dominant in males and were high in summer. 68% of the subjects were exposed to mammalians. Most prominent injuries were dog bites (30%), horse (22%) and livestock-related injuries (12%). Hospitalization was significantly higher in mammalian animal injuries compared to non-mammalian injuries. The highest hospitalization rate was measured for equine-related injuries (15%). In our bite series, dogs were the primary source (69%) while horse-bites (17%) took the second place and they were more than two fold more when compared with cats (7.5%). Dog bites were prominent in children, thus both parents and children should be educated. Insect and snake-related injuries were both low in number and relatively silent in prognosis. Highest temperatures on site were determined for tick-bites, unspecified insect stings and bee stings, respectively. The highest humidity was determined for dog-bites, cat-bites and scorpion stings, respectively. Nonmammalian and sting injuries had higher temperature and lower humidity measurements compared to mammalian and bite injuries. Geographical and meteorological factors may directly affect descriptive epidemiology of animal-related injuries.