• Muhammad Ikram Ali, Seemin Jamali, Tehreem Ashraf, and Nasibullah Ahmed.
• Dr. M. Ikram Ali, MBBS, DMJ. Assistant Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine, Ziauddin University, Karachi, Pakistan.
• Pak J Med Sci. 2021 May 1; 37 (3): 794-799.

ObjectivesTo assess patterns & outcomes of dog bite injuries coming to a public sector tertiary care hospital in Karachi, Pakistan.MethodsThis 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.ResultsAmong 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.ConclusionResearch 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.Copyright: © Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences.

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