IN THIS SITE...
- NHS Choices: bites
- Why are there fluctuations?
- Inpatient data
- Self Service
HES on... dog bites and strikes
Dog bites and strikes can affect any person at any age. This article gives an overview of HES data relating to patients who have been admitted to hospital in England after being bitten or struck by a dog.
What are the symptoms of bites?
Bites from any source (human or animal) can cause bruising and may even break the skin. All humans and animals carry germs in their mouths that can be passed on through a bite and cause infection.
According to NHS Choices, the most common animal bites in the UK are from dogs.
Who gets bitten or struck by dogs?
People of all ages are treated in hospital following dog bites or strikes, as shown by the graph below.
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The past decade
Over the past ten years there has been an increase in the number of finished consultant episodes attributed to being bitten or struck by a dog (External cause code W54 in ICD-10).
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| Finished consultant episodes for dog bites and strikes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data year | 0-9 | 10-19 | 20-29 | 30-39 | 40-49 | 50-59 | 60-69 | 70-79 | 80-89 | =>90 |
| 2007-08 | 827 | 671 | 540 | 582 | 690 | 553 | 389 | 250 | 153 | 44 |
| 1997-98 | 989 | 356 | 245 | 291 | 273 | 287 | 228 | 150 | 86 | 10 |
HES facts and figures for 2007-08
HES data for being bitten or struck by a dog show that:
- nearly all (90%) hospital admissions are emergencies
- the average (mean) time that patients remained in hospital was 2.2 days
- Where procedures were carried out on patients, the most common were:
- Exploration of other skin of other site (S57 in OPCS-4.4)
- Other repair of lip (F05 in OPCS-4.4)
- Suture of skin of head or neck (S41 in OPCS-4.4)
- they were responsible for 4,699 episodes of admitted patient care, accounting for 9,808 occupied bed days.
More information on this topic is available from NHS Choices here.