Barroom Brawls Often End in Biting Binges
Late night drinking binges, on weekends or public holidays, often end in brawls. It is then that men are often bitten by other men, as much as twelve times more often than women would normally be. On the other hand women experiencing such injuries will have in all likelihood hurt themselves while 'on the job' in law enforcement and in other such high risk situations.
Researchers led by Doctor Francis Henry, now with Massachusetts General Hospital, but previously at Dublin's St. James's Hospital, published these and other findings online on Tuesday, June 19, in the Emergency Medicine Journal.
As part of their research the doctors had investigated, in the space of two year, between January 2003 and December 2005, 92 cases of people (7 women and 85 men,) who had received severe bites from other people, normally necessitating plastic surgery at the hospital.
Seventy percent of these bites were to the face, with 65% of them being to the ear. The other injuries were to the head, fingers and forearms. The bites had become infected in 20 percent of the patients, and the infections set in most often when the victims sought medical attention after more than 12 hours had elapsed since the injury. However, of the patients in the study, only 14 percent had, or planned on having reconstructive surgery in order to repair any aesthetic damage incurred from the bite.
Doctor Henry also revealed that 86 percent of the people involved were young men who had imbibed alcohol, often in bar rooms, and 12% had taken illicit drugs. Most of the incidents took place in the early hours of the morning, at about 3a.m.
Describing the human bite injury as 'deceptive' in their report, the researchers cautioned that even seemingly innocuous wounds should be taken seriously since they have the capability of getting infected and of affecting performance besides maiming and marring ones looks.
Drawing parallels to similar incidences universally, Doctor Henry put it down to “…the binge-drinking culture among young people."
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