Repair of the wounds may require simple closure, removal of injured tissue, and reconstructive surgery. Underlying nerve and bone injuries may need repair. Sometimes completely severed tissue can be replaced as a graft or reattached with microsurgical repair of tiny blood vessels. Sometimes we have to move other tissue into the defect to close or recreate the disfigured feature. Such reconstruction may need multiple operations over several years.
Scars are inevitable.
Scars may be improved but never completely removed. None of this is very much fun for the patient or the family. Patients frequently become nervous of dogs. Parents often suffer from shame and guilt and suffer more than the child. The increase in population of large dogs has resulted in an increased severity of bites.