Abstract

INTRODUCTION: This study was conducted between June 1, 2012 and June 1, 2013 with the aim of evaluating patients who came to the of B Public Hospital's emergency room due to bites by animals suspected to have rabies. METHODS: All 197 cases that came to the emergency room due to bite and contact with rabies-suspected animals were included in the study. The researcher obtained permission to analyze the Emergency Service Patient Evaluation Forms for these cases retrospectively, and the cases were evaluated considering their age, sex, residence, type of contact, area of contact, shape of wound, duration before coming to the health center after the contact and the administration of vaccination or immunoglobulin. In addition, the researcher determined the suspected animals, their types, and whether they had owners. RESULTS: In the study sample, 67% of 197 cases were males. Their average age was 30.10± 22.11 years. Of them, 64.5% lived in the country. In 54.8% of the cases, owned animals were involved. An evaluation of the distribution of the cases showed that 55.8% were upper extremity injuries, while 22.3% were lower extremity injuries. The rest were distributed as 6.6% (head and neck) and 15.3% (body and gluteal area). Of all the cases, 77.7% came to the emergency center on the first day after contact, 21.3% waited 2 to 5 days before coming to the center, and 1% waited for more than five days. Of the bite victims who lived in the country, 63.1% had deep wounds, and 31.3% of the bite victims who lived in the city had deep wounds (p<0.001). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: All the bite victims who came to the emergency service were vaccinated. There was a high rate of contact with owned and monitorable animals at the hospital, which shows that animal control and vaccination are very important in Turkey.

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