Emergency treatment for a 9-year-old was bitten in his genital by natural dog bite

05/04/2021 07:35

On March 14^th, P.H.C., a 9-year-old boy from Vinh Phuc was admitted to Viet Duc University Hospital (VDUH) after a dog bit in his genital.

 

As his family members recalled, around 5PM on March 14^th, the boy was attacked by a maternal dog when he went to his neighbor’s house. He suffered severe degloving injuries to his penis.

 

According to Dr. Nguyen Viet Hoa, PhD. MD. (Chief of Department of Pediatric and Neonatal Surgery, VDUH), a surgical team promptly debrided the wounds, removed necrotic tissues and preserved the penile skin with sutures for the young patient. Two days post-op, C. was in stable. Fortunately, he did not sustain any injuries to his corpus cavernosum, corpus spongiosum and urethra.

 

The boy was vaccinated within 72 hours from the time of the attack, in accordance with vaccination guidelines and his family continued to monitor the dog.

 

 

According to Dr. Vu Hong Tuan (Department of Pediatric and Neonatal Surgery, VDUH), the department has treated many cases of children injured by dog attacks, but injury to the penis was quite rare. There was one similar case in 3 years ago where one dog bit off a child’s entire penis and also one other case where a little boy’s older brother accidentally cut off his penis when they were playing with knives. In cases of penile wounds, doctors recommend bringing the patients to the well-know medical facilities as soon as possible.

 

Every year, many children undergo emergency surgery due to dog attacks. Usually, in these cases, adults suffer injuries to their limbs while children often sustain more severe injuries to their heads and necks. Therefore, parents should take extra care either by not having dogs as pets or making sure their pet dogs are fully vaccinated and kept away from small children. Young children should be monitored and told not to tease dogs especially when they are feeding or sleeping.