The victims were 17 males and 23 females with ages ranging from 2 to 76 years (mean 25). Median delay between the injury and presentation in the emergency department was 60 minutes (range 7 minutes to 5 days). All patients received surgical treatment within 24 hours of admission, 18 being operated on within 6 hours. 31 had primary repairs and 9 patients had reconstructive procedures with local skin flaps or skin grafts. Primary healing was achieved in all but 2 patients, of whom one developed minor wound infection and one had necrosis of a composite graft.These results support the view that, for dog bites to the face, primary repair is the method of choice.
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