Tag Archives: Bites and Stings

Straight, No Chaser: Your Questions About Human Bites

July 26, 2016Infectious Disease, Medical Treatment, Skin/Dermatology844-SMA-TALK, Behind the Curtain, Bite, Bite marks, Bites and Stings, Boxer's fracture, cat bite, Conditions and Diseases, Dracula, health, human bite, Infection, laceration repair, metacarpal bone, pinky finger, puncture wound, Snake bite, Sterling Medical Advice, SterlingMedicalAdvice.com, Straight No Chaser, Wound, Wounds and InjuriesJeffrey Sterling, MD

The votes are in, and it appears that Jaws (from James Bond fame) found the previous post, well… biting. Here’s your questions and answers about human bites:
1) If human bites are so dangerous, why do women love Dracula so much?

Seriously? Let’s just ascribe it to the neck being an erogenous zone and move on…

2) What’s a Boxer’s Fracture?

A boxer’s fracture is a misnomer because boxers don’t get them. This describes a fracture at the base of the small finger (5^th metacarpal), often caused from poor form throwing a punch. If you take one hand and move the pinky finger portion of the palm (the metacarpal bone), you’ll notice how movable it is (i.e. unstable) compared with the same efforts on the index and middle fingers at the level of the palm, which is what should deliver the blow. A boxer’s fracture and a human bite together makes for a very bad day.

3) Is a human’s mouth really dirtier than a goat’s mouth?

It’s correct to say the bacteria in a human’s mouth cause more disease.

4) Is a bite the same as a puncture wound

The difference between a puncture wound and a laceration is you can identify the bottom (base) of the wound in a laceration, and you can’t in a puncture wound. Regarding bites: cats, snakes and the aforementioned Dracula are more likely to cause puncture wounds. Puncture wounds may or may not be caused by a bite (e.g. knife wounds are punctures).

5) I received a bite and didn’t get stitched up. Why?

This could be for several reasons. Puncture wounds don’t receive stitches because you don’t want to seal off the infection. That’s a really good way to develop an abscess.
Sometimes we will opt for ‘delayed closure’, waiting 3-5 days to ensure no infection has occurred before placing stitches.
It’s really about the risk/benefit ratio. A laceration to a face is more likely to be repaired because of the risk of disfigurement and scarring, plus the face is a relatively low infection area anyway.

6) Why didn’t Dracula ever get Hepatitis or HIV?

Even though Dracula’s the undead, one would think he’d be the world’s single greatest transmitter of both HIV and the blood transmitted forms of Hepatitis. HIV is viable for awhile in dead tissue, but it can’t multiply, which would explain why Dracula doesn’t show signs of the diseases. On that note, I’m done.

Feel free to ask your SMA expert consultant any questions you may have on this topic.
Order your copy of Dr. Sterling’s new book Behind The Curtain: A Peek at Life from within the ER at jeffreysterlingbooks.com, iTunes, Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and wherever books are sold.
Thanks for liking and following Straight, No Chaser! This public service provides a sample of what http://www.SterlingMedicalAdvice.com (SMA) and 844-SMA-TALK offers. Please share our page with your friends on WordPress, like us on Facebook @ SterlingMedicalAdvice.com and follow us on Twitter at @asksterlingmd.
Copyright © 2016 · Sterling Initiatives, LLC · Powered by WordPress

Straight, No Chaser: Human Bites

July 25, 2016Infectious Disease, Skin/Dermatology844-SMA-TALK, Behind the Curtain, Bite, Bites and Stings, Biting, Cellulitis, Conditions and Diseases, Hangnails, health, human bite, Infection, Mike Tyson, Open wound, Sterling Medical Advice, SterlingMedicalAdvice.com, Straight No Chaser, Tetanus shot, Wound, Wounds and InjuriesJeffrey Sterling, MD

Maybe it’s where I’m located, but I tend to see way more “fight bites” than anything else; these specifically refer to someone getting hit in the mouth. It’s always interesting to see the guy who “won” the fight being the one who has to come in for medical treatment. He cut his hand on someone’s tooth and really doesn’t think much of it. He just wants the laceration sewn. Little does he realize, the structures in the hand (tendons, blood vessels, muscles, and bones) are highly concentrated. He also doesn’t know that they are confined to a very limited space and seeding an infection in that tight space makes things really bad really quick. This guy is very dangerous because he tends to deny ever getting into the fight, ascribing the injury to something else (like punching a tree)—at least until I ask him why a tooth is inside his hand.

Then there’s the “Yes, he bit me” variety, where the teeth were the aggressor that engaged the victim instead of the fist engaging the tooth. Think of the Tyson vs. Holyfield bite as an example. Sometimes parts get bitten off (fingers, nose, ears, and other unmentionables)! Children, as another example, sometimes bite and need to learn to stop that behavior. Biting is sometimes seen in sexual assault, physical abuse, self-mutilation, or with mentally handicapped individuals.

A third type is the ‘We love too much!’ variety of bites. These may include hickeys that actually break the skin. Other examples of “friendly” bites are folks biting off their hangnails, fingernails, and toenails and create skin infections. Yes, it happens more than you’d think, and no, you don’t have to be a vampire.
The commonality to all of these scenarios is saliva that found its way through the skin. Because of the virulence of the bacteria contained within the saliva, an infection will be forthcoming. You’ll know soon enough when the redness, warmth, tenderness, fever, and possible pus from the wound develop.
The easy recommendation to make is anytime a wound involving someone’s mouth breaks your skin, get evaluated. Some wounds are much more dangerous than others. Teeth get dislodged into wounds, hand tendons get cut, bones get broken, and serious infections develop. In fact, these bites require immunization for tetanus.
Bottom line: There’s no reason not to get evaluated if you develop those signs of infection, if any injury to your hand occurs, or if any breakage of your skin has occurred. You’ll need antibiotics and wound cleaning in all probability, with a tetanus shot if you’re not up to date. If you’re unlucky, you may end up in the operating room.

So here’s your duty if you haven’t successfully avoided the bite:
1) At home, only clean the open wound by running water over the area. Avoid the home remedies like peroxide, alcohol, and anything else that burns. Those agents make things worse by damaging the skin more than they “clean” the area.
2) Apply ice—never directly to the wound—but in a towel. Use for 15 minutes on and then 15 minutes off.
3) Retrieve any displaced skin tissue, place it in a bag of cold water, place that bag on ice, and bring it with you. We’ll decide if it’s salvageable.
4) Get in to be evaluated. Be forthcoming about whether or not it was a bite.
Feel free to ask your SMA expert consultant any questions you may have on this topic.
Order your copy of Dr. Sterling’s new book Behind The Curtain: A Peek at Life from within the ER at jeffreysterlingbooks.com, iTunes, Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and wherever books are sold.
Thanks for liking and following Straight, No Chaser! This public service provides a sample of what http://www.SterlingMedicalAdvice.com (SMA) and 844-SMA-TALK offers. Please share our page with your friends on WordPress, like us on Facebook @ SterlingMedicalAdvice.com and follow us on Twitter at @asksterlingmd.
Copyright © 2016 · Sterling Initiatives, LLC · Powered by WordPress

Straight, No Chaser: Your Questions About Human Bites

June 9, 2015Infectious Disease, Medical Treatment, Skin/DermatologyBite, Bite marks, Bites and Stings, Boxer's fracture, cat bite, Conditions and Diseases, Dracula, health, human bite, Infection, laceration repair, metacarpal bone, pinky finger, puncture wound, Snake bite, Wound, Wounds and InjuriesJeffrey Sterling, MD

Seriously? Let’s just ascribe it to the neck being an erogenous zone and move on…

2) What’s a Boxer’s Fracture?

A boxer’s fracture is a misnomer because boxers don’t get them. This describes a fracture at the base of the small finger (5^th metacarpal), often caused from poor form throwing a punch. If you take one hand and move the pinky finger portion of the palm (the metacarpal bone), you’ll notice how movable it is (i.e. unstable) compared with the same efforts on the index and middle fingers at the level of the palm, which is what should deliver the blow. A boxer’s fracture and a human bite together makes for a very bad day.

3) Is a human’s mouth really dirtier than a goat’s mouth?

It’s correct to say the bacteria in a human’s mouth cause more disease.

4) Is a bite the same as a puncture wound

The difference between a puncture wound and a laceration is you can identify the bottom (base) of the wound in a laceration, and you can’t in a puncture wound. Regarding bites: cats, snakes and the aforementioned Dracula are more likely to cause puncture wounds. Puncture wounds may or may not be caused by a bite (e.g. knife wounds are punctures).

5) I received a bite and didn’t get stitched up. Why?

This could be for several reasons. Puncture wounds don’t receive stitches because you don’t want to seal off the infection. That’s a really good way to develop an abscess.
Sometimes we will opt for ‘delayed closure’, waiting 3-5 days to ensure no infection has occurred before placing stitches.
It’s really about the risk/benefit ratio. A laceration to a face is more likely to be repaired because of the risk of disfigurement and scarring, plus the face is a relatively low infection area anyway.

6) Why didn’t Dracula ever get Hepatitis or HIV?

Even though Dracula’s the undead, one would think he’d be the world’s single greatest transmitter of both HIV and the blood transmitted forms of Hepatitis. HIV is viable for awhile in dead tissue, but it can’t multiply, which would explain why Dracula doesn’t show signs of the diseases. On that note, I’m done.

Thanks for liking and following Straight, No Chaser! This public service provides a sample of what http://www.SterlingMedicalAdvice.com (SMA) and 844-SMA-TALK offers. Please share our page with your friends on WordPress, like us on Facebook @ SterlingMedicalAdvice.com and follow us on Twitter at @asksterlingmd. Preorder your copy of Dr. Sterling’s new book Behind The Curtain: A Peek at Life from within the ER at jeffreysterlingbooks.com.

Straight, No Chaser: Human Bites

June 1, 2015General Health and WellnessBite, Bites and Stings, Biting, Cellulitis, Conditions and Diseases, Hangnails, health, human bite, Infection, Mike Tyson, Open wound, Tetanus shot, Wound, Wounds and InjuriesJeffrey Sterling, MD

A third type is the ‘We love too much!’ variety of bites. These may include hickeys that actually break the skin. Other examples of “friendly” bites are folks biting off their hangnails, fingernails, and toenails and create skin infections. Yes, it happens more than you’d think, and no, you don’t have to be a vampire.
The commonality to all of these scenarios is saliva that found its way through the skin. Because of the virulence of the bacteria contained within the saliva, an infection will be forthcoming. You’ll know soon enough when the redness, warmth, tenderness, fever, and possible pus from the wound develop.
The easy recommendation to make is anytime a wound involving someone’s mouth breaks your skin, get evaluated. Some wounds are much more dangerous than others. Teeth get dislodged into wounds, hand tendons get cut, bones get broken, and serious infections develop. In fact, these bites require immunization for tetanus. Bottom line: There’s no reason not to get evaluated if you develop those signs of infection, if any injury to your hand occurs, or if any breakage of your skin has occurred. You’ll need antibiotics and wound cleaning in all probability, with a tetanus shot if you’re not up to date. If you’re unlucky, you may end up in the operating room.

So here’s your duty if you haven’t successfully avoided the bite:
1) At home, only clean the open wound by running water over the area. Avoid the home remedies like peroxide, alcohol, and anything else that burns. Those agents make things worse by damaging the skin more than they “clean” the area.
2) Apply ice—never directly to the wound—but in a towel. Use for 15 minutes on and then 15 minutes off.
3) Retrieve any displaced skin tissue, place it in a bag of cold water, place that bag on ice, and bring it with you. We’ll decide if it’s salvageable.
4) Get in to be evaluated. Be forthcoming about whether or not it was a bite.
Thanks for liking and following Straight, No Chaser! This public service provides a sample of what http://www.SterlingMedicalAdvice.com (SMA) and 844-SMA-TALK offers. Please share our page with your friends on WordPress, like us on Facebook @ SterlingMedicalAdvice.com and follow us on Twitter at @asksterlingmd.
Copyright © 2015 · Sterling Initiatives, LLC

Straight, No Chaser: Your Questions about Human Bites

August 5, 2013Medical TreatmentBite, Bite marks, Bites and Stings, Boxer's fracture, cat bite, Conditions and Diseases, Dracula, health, human bite, Infection, laceration repair, metacarpal bone, pinky finger, puncture wound, Snake bite, Wound, Wounds and InjuriesJeffrey Sterling, MD

It seems that you found today’s post, well… biting. Here’s your questions and answers about human bites:
1) If human bites are so dangerous, why do women love Dracula so much?

Seriously? Let’s just ascribe it to the neck being an erogenous zone and move on…

2) What’s a Boxer’s Fracture?

A boxer’s fracture is a misnomer because boxers don’t get them. This describes a fracture at the base of the small finger (5^th metacarpal), often caused from poor form throwing a punch. If you take one hand and move the pinky finger portion of the palm (the metacarpal bone), you’ll notice how movable it is (i.e. unstable) compared with the same efforts on the index and middle fingers at the level of the palm, which is what should deliver the blow. A boxer’s fracture and a human bite together makes for a very bad day.

3) Is a human’s mouth really dirtier than a goat’s mouth?

It’s correct to say the bacteria in a human’s mouth cause more disease.

4) Is a bite the same as a puncture wound?

The difference between a puncture wound and a laceration is you can identify the bottom (base) of the wound in a laceration, and you can’t in a puncture wound. Regarding bites: cats, snakes and the aforementioned Dracula are more likely to cause puncture wounds. Puncture wounds may or may not be caused by a bite (e.g. knife wounds are punctures).

5) I received a bite and didn’t get stitched up. Why?

This could be for several reasons. Puncture wounds don’t receive stitches because you don’t want to seal off the infection. That’s a really good way to develop an abscess.
Sometimes we will opt for ‘delayed closure’, waiting 3-5 days to ensure no infection has occurred before placing stitches.
It’s really about the risk/benefit ratio. A laceration to a face is more likely to be repaired because of the risk of disfigurement and scarring, plus the face is a relatively low infection area anyway.

6) Why didn’t Dracula ever get Hepatitis or HIV?

Even though Dracula’s the undead, one would think he’d be the world’s single greatest transmitter of both HIV and the blood transmitted forms of Hepatitis. HIV is viable for awhile in dead tissue, but it can’t multiply, which would explain why Dracula doesn’t show signs of the diseases. On that note, I’m done.

Straight No Chaser: Human Bites

August 5, 2013Medical Treatment, Health PreventionBite, Bites and Stings, Biting, Cellulitis, Conditions and Diseases, Hangnails, health, human bite, Infection, LiveScience, Mike Tyson, Open wound, Tetanus shot, United States, Wound, Wounds and InjuriesJeffrey Sterling, MD

I have had weird experiences with humans biting humans, as have most physicians. There are several different types of human bites, which can range from harmless to surgically serious, but as an emergency physician knowing the dangers of the bacteria inhabiting your mouth, I tend to assume the worst until proven otherwise. Your first Quick Tip is to do the same.
Maybe it’s where I’m located, but I tend to see way more ‘fight bites’ than anything else; these specifically refer to someone getting hit in the mouth. It’s always interesting to see the guy who ‘won’ the fight being the one who has to come in for medical treatment. He will have cut his hand on someone’s tooth and really doesn’t think much of it. He just wants the laceration sewn. Little does he realize how concentrated all of the structures (tendons, blood vessels, muscles and bones) are in the hand. He also doesn’t know that they’re confined to a very limited space, and seeding an infection in that space makes things really bad really quick. These guys are very dangerous because they tend to deny ever getting into the fight, ascribing the injury to something else (like punching a tree) – at least until I ask him why a tooth is inside his hand.
Then there’s the “Yes, I was bitten” variety, including activity where the teeth engaged the victim instead of the fist engaging a tooth. Think of the above Tyson vs. Holyfield bite as an example. Sometimes parts get bitten off (fingers, nose, ears and other unmentionables)! Children sometimes need to learn to stop biting as a behavior. Biting is sometimes seen in sexual assault, physical abuse and in self-mutilating behavior or with mentally handicapped individuals.
A third type is the ‘We love too much!’ variety. These may include hickeys (that actually break the skin), folks biting off their hangnails, and individuals who create skin infections by biting their toenails and fingernails. Yes, it happens more than you’d think.
The commonality to all of these scenarios is saliva found its way through the skin. Because of the virulence of those bacteria contained within, an infection will be forthcoming. You’ll know soon enough when the redness, warmth, tenderness and possibly pus from the wound and fever develop.
The easy recommendation to make is anytime a wound involving someone’s mouth breaks your skin, you need to be evaluated. Some wounds are much more dangerous than others. Teeth get dislodged into wounds, hand tendons get cut, bones get broken, and serious infections develop, and in fact these bites require immunization for tetanus. Bottom line: there’s no reason not to get evaluated if you develop those signs of infection I mentioned, if any injury to your hand occurs, or if any breakage of your skin has occurred. You’ll need antibiotics and wound cleaning in all probability, with a tetanus shot if you’re not up to date. If you’re unlucky, you may end up in the operating room.
So here’s your duty if you haven’t successfully avoided the bite:
1) At home, only clean the open wound by running water over the area. Avoid the home remedies, peroxide, alcohol and anything else that burns. You’re making things worse for yourself (those agents cause skin damage more than they’re ‘cleaning’ the area).
2) Apply ice – never directly to the wound, but in a towel. Use for 15 minutes off then 15 minutes on.
3) Retrieve any displaced skin tissue, place it in a bag of cold water, place that bag on ice, and bring it with you. We’ll decide if it’s salvageable.
4) Get in to be evaluated. Be forthcoming about whether or not it was a bite.