RESEARCH ARTICLE
Bite Injuries to the Hand: Microbiology, Virology and Management
M. Malahias1, D. Jordan2, O. Hughes2, Wasim S. Khan3, S. Hindocha*, 2
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2014Volume: 8
Issue: Suppl 1
First Page: 157
Last Page: 161
Publisher ID: TOORTHJ-8-157
DOI: 10.2174/1874325001408010157
Article History:
Received Date: 1/3/2014Revision Received Date: 5/4/2014
Acceptance Date: 10/4/2014
Electronic publication date: 27/6/2014
Collection year: 2014

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/) which permits unrestrictive use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
Bites to the human hand, be it from a pet, a stray animal or even a fellow human, may often have dire consequences for the person suffering the insult. Bites by mammals are a common problem and they account for up to 1% of all visits to hospital emergency rooms, in the UK. Clenched fist injuries to the mouth (‘fight bite’) are notorious for being the worst human bites. Bite injuries of the hand and their related infections must be monitored vigilantly and managed proactively, by experts in this field of surgery. In this review article we discuss the associated microbiology and virology of these injuries as well as their management.