Objectives: To assess patterns & outcomes of dog bite injuries coming to a public sector tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan. Methods: This was a one-year descriptive cross sectional study from 1st June 2018- 31st May 2019 using consecutive sampling technique. Data of 7512 patients was collected from animal-bite clinic of a tertiary care hospital. Inclusion criteria was animal bite cases that were reported during the dates 1st June 2018 to 31st May 2019, Incomplete records were excluded. Data comprising of time of bite, the location of the victim at the time of bite within the city, animal responsible for the bite, gender and age of victim, date of presentation, site and category of bite (as per WHO criteria) was recorded by the primary investigator. The study was conducted at Jinnah Post-Graduate Medical Centre. Results: Among 7512 participants 85.8% were males, 32.2% victims reported time of bite between morning and noon, 78.8% of bites involved lower limbs. 51.6% of the bites belonged to category 2. Stray dog bites were observed in 90.3% of cases. Outcome showed 54.9% completed their vaccination, while 44.3% did not show for complete follow up, 3.99% bites were grievous & 0.03% reported with developed rabies. Conclusion: Research reveals Males belonging to adult age group were most vulnerable, most bites were inflicted in early hours, most common animal inflicting the bites were stray dogs. Many victims did not complete their vaccination from the same centre. Peak of the summer was associated with a decline in number of incidents. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.3.3464 How to cite this:Ali MI, Jamali S, Ashraf T, Ahmed N. Patterns and Outcomes of dog bite injuries presenting to emergency department in a tertiary care hospital at Karachi. Pak J Med Sci. 2021;37(3):---------. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.37.3.3464 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Aim: To discuss the currently available hydrogel wound dressings and their clinical effectiveness. Method: PubMed/Medline, HEC Digital Library, Wiley Online Library, Wolter Kluwer, Elsevier, and Google Scholar from the year 2013 to 2021 were searched to identify relevant clinical trials and studies. Results: Forty-three studies that assessed hydrogel vs. non-hydrogel dressings were identified. Compared to the latter, hydrogel dressings associated with a significantly shortened healing time of degree II burn (superficial and deep) wounds, diabetic foot ulcers, traumatic skin injuries, radioactive skin injuries, dog bites, and body surface ulcers. In addition, hydrogel dressing obviously increased the cure rate of diabetic foot ulcers, surgical wounds, dog bites, and body surface ulcers. Moreover, hydrogel dressing significantly relieved pain in degree II burn (superficial and deep) wounds, traumatic skin injuries and laser treatment-induced wounds. However, no significant differences obtained between hydrogel and non-hydrogel dressings in the healing time of surgical wounds, the cure rate of inpatients' pressure ulcers, and phlebitis ulcers. Conclusion: This comprehensive systematic review of the available evidence reveals that the application of hydrogel dressings advances the healing of various wound types and effectively alleviates the pain with no severe adverse reactions. These results strongly indicate that hydrogel products are effective and safe in wound management. Keywords: Hydrogels, wound dressing, surgical wounds, diabetic ulcer, burns.

Objective: To compare the role of beta and A point-nasion-B (ANB) angles in evaluating the sagittal skeletal discrepancy in a cephalometric study done in the Pakistani population. Study Design: Comparative cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Orthodontics Department, Armed Forces Institute of Dentistry, Rawalpindi Pakistan, from Jul to Dec 2019. Methodology: A total of 150 subjects between the age of 18 to 25 years were enrolled in the study A point-nasion-B angle was measured using the lateral cephalogram in all the subjects and was divided into classes I, II and III. Beta angle was also measured in all the patients. Results: Out of 150 subjects, 92 (61.3%) patients were males, and 58 (38.7%) were females. The mean age of the subjects was 19.2 ± 2.138 years. 89 (59.3%) patients were classed in Class-I, 40 (26.7%) in class-II and 21 (14%) in class-III. The mean score of A point-nasion-B angles among the patients was 7.5 ± 1.112. The mean score for beta angles in the study participants was 30.5 ± 2.214. A point-nasion-B and beta angles both had a significant relationship with classes of skeletal discrepancies. Conclusion: Sagittal skeletal discrepancies can be evaluated with accuracy by using both A point-nasion-B and beta angles. Lateral cephalograms and radiography measures emerged as reliable techniques to classify the patients in various skeletal patterns. Factors like age and gender do not influence skeletal discrepancies.