A retrospective study of 40 victims of Crotalus snake bites: analysis of the hepatic necrosis observed in one patient

Forty patients with a diagnosis of snake bite were studied at the Infectious and Parasitic Disease Service of the Faculty of Medicine of Botucatu. Thirty were males and 10 females, ranging in age from 16 to 70 years. All were farm laborers and 35 of them were bitten in the lower limbs. Two of the 9...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical
Main Authors: Benedito Barraviera, José Carlos Bonjorno Junior, Denise Arakaki, Maria Aparecida C. Domingues, Paulo Camara Marques Pereira, Rinaldo P. Mendes, Jussara Marcondes Machado, Domingos Alves Meira
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical (SBMT) 1989
Subjects:
Acidente crotálico
Necrose hepática
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine
RC955-962
Arctic
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1590/S0037-86821989000100002
https://doaj.org/article/864343b3a723444891cd53d4264b0bf2
Description
Summary:Forty patients with a diagnosis of snake bite were studied at the Infectious and Parasitic Disease Service of the Faculty of Medicine of Botucatu. Thirty were males and 10 females, ranging in age from 16 to 70 years. All were farm laborers and 35 of them were bitten in the lower limbs. Two of the 9 patients seen more than 6 hours after the bite died. The low mortality rate (5%) observed could be explained by the early care provided, by the use of appropriate doses of anti-crotalus serum, parenteral hydration, urine alkalinization with sodium bicarbonate and induction of osmotic diuresis with a mannitol solution. Anatomopathological examination of one of the patients who died revealed extensive hepatic necrosis. The authors discuss the possibility of the effect of a factor of snake venom in the genesis of hepatic necrosis and in the increased transaminase levels.

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