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WASHINGTON - Men are 12 times more likely than women to be bitten by another person, most commonly by other men in late-night drunken brawls, according to Irish research.
Writing yesterday in the Emergency Medicine Journal, researchers analysed the cases of 92 people who from 2003 to 2005 suffered human bite wounds so serious that plastic surgery specialists at St James's Hospital Dublin became involved.
Eighty-five of the victims - 92 per cent - were men.
"This injury is predominately among young males with alcohol on board," Dr. Francis Henry of Massachusetts General Hospital and formerly of St James's Hospital Dublin, said in a telephone interview.
"By far - overwhelmingly - the majority were late-night, alcohol-fueled injuries," often in a bar setting, Henry added.
Alcohol was involved in 86 of the 92 cases, and some also involved drugs. The average time for getting such wounds was 3am.
Most of the wounds were inflicted to the face and head while fingers and forearms also sometimes felt the wrath of someone else's teeth, the study found.
"It's not really a wound to be taken lightly," Henry said.
"The human bite injury is a deceptive wound. The potential for infective, functional and aesthetic complications requires prompt treatment in an appropriate setting," the researchers wrote.
Women who suffer these wounds are more likely to have been hurt them on the job, for example working at psychiatric institutions or in law enforcement, Henry said.
Henry said he believed the findings in Dublin are applicable to other places around the world.
"We are seeing increasing effects across the globe with the binge-drinking culture among young people," Henry said.
- REUTERS
