Citation

Barraviera B, Bonjorno Júnior JC, Arkaki D, Domingues MA, Pereira PC, Mendes RP, Machado JM, Meira DA. Rev. Soc. Bras. Med. Trop. 1989; 22(1): 5-12.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1989, Sociedade Brasileira De Medicina Tropical)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

2638023

Abstract

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.

Language: en