TY  - JOUR
PY  - 2011//
TI  - A five-year retrospective review of snakebite patients admitted to a tertiary university hospital in Malaysia
JO  - International journal of emergency medicine
A1  - Chew, Keng Sheng
A1  - Khor, Heng Wei
A1  - Ahmad, Rashidi
A1  - Rahman, Nik Hisamuddin Nik Abdul
SP  - 41
EP  - 41
VL  - 4
IS  - 1
N2  - BACKGROUND: Although the majority of the snakebite cases in Malaysia are due to non-venomous snakes, venomous bites cause significant morbidity and mortality if treatment measures, especially ant-venom therapy, are delayed. METHODS: To determine the demographic characteristics, we conducted a retrospective study on all snakebite patients admitted to the Emergency Department of Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) from January 2006 to December 2010. RESULTS: In the majority of the 260 cases that we found (138 cases or 52.9%), the snake species was unidentified. The most common venomous snakebites among the identified species were caused by cobras (52 cases or 20%). Cobra bites are significantly more likely to result in severe envenomation compared to non-cobra bites. Post hoc analysis also showed that cobra bite patients are significantly less likely to have complete recovery than non-cobra bite patients (48 cases, 75.0% vs. 53 cases, 94.6%; p = 0.003) and more likely to result in local gangrene (11 cases, 17.2% vs. 3 cases, 5.4%; p = 0.044). CONCLUSION: Cobra bites are significantly more likely to result in severe envenomation needing anti-venom administration and more likely to result in local gangrene, and the patients are significantly less likely to have complete recovery than those with non-cobra bites.<p />  <p>Language: en</p>
LA  - en
SN  - 1865-1372
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1865-1380-4-41
ID  - ref1
ER  -