Human bites have risen over the past decade and many of Ireland's top plastic surgeons are angry that hospitals here, which are already under strain, are having to cope with these unnecessary admissions.

Dr Frank Henry, plastic surgery registrar at Dublin's St James's Hospital, has just completed a groundbreaking study into biting injuries.

Entitled An audit of human bite injuries referred to a tertiary plastic service, it is set to reveal that alcohol-fuelled aggression is the most common cause of the growing number of human bite injuries.

By studying the number of patients admitted to St James's Hospital with these injuries from 2002 to 2005, Henry has found that alcohol was consumed by 85% of those admitted with bite injuries.

"There were 92 patients admitted to the plastic surgery clinic in St James's over the three year period and 80% of them were bitten between 11pm and 3 am, " he told the Sunday Tribune.

"Ninety-two per cent of those admitted were men so it seems to be young men with alcohol on board that are getting involved in incidents where they are bitten."

Henry's study has shown that 70% of all bite injuries occur around the face, with bites to the ears being the most common injury detected. People are also bitten in the fingers, lips and nose.

He added, "A lot of these injuries lead to the patient having a significant cosmetic defect that often requires major reconstructive surgery."

Human biting injuries are not confined to Dublin, and Padraic Regan, a consultant plastic surgeon at University College Hospital in Galway, believes that these incidents are increasing nationally.

"We have noticed an increase in people coming in with bite injuries to their ears, nose and even eyebrows, " said Regan.

"They invariably occur late at night after a lot of alcohol has been consumed. We recently had one young lad in that had his whole ear bitten off.

"These injuries are often very difficult to treat as people are often traumatised and reconstruction of ears and the tip of the nose is difficult.

Now that Dr Henry has completed his study, we are looking into compiling national statistics on bite injuries."

Patricia Eadie, consultant plastic surgeon at St James's Hospital in Dublin, said: "We regularly get patients coming in here with their ears, noses, lips and even fingers bitten off.

"Society has changed, there is more and more alcohol and drugs and as a result there is more aggression on the streets.

"Sometimes innocent bystanders get bitten for no reason but they are mostly caused by alcohol-fuelled aggression between two or more people."