Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Volume 95, Issue 6 , Pages 630-634, November 2001

Prognostic factors for local necrosis in Bothrops jararaca (Brazilian pit viper) bites

  • Lindioneza Adriano Ribeiro

      Affiliations

    • Corresponding Author InformationAddress for correspondence: Dra Lindioneza Adriano Ribeiro, Departamento de Clínica Médica da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Av. Pará 1720 Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, CEP 38400-902, Brazil. phone +55 34 32182349, fax +55 34 32182349.
    • Departamento de Clínica Médica, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil
    • ,
  • Miguel Tanús Jorge

      Affiliations

    • Departamento de Clínica Médica, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, Minas Gerais, Brazil
    • ,
  • Maria Lúcia Lebrão

      Affiliations

    • Departamento de Epidemiologia da Faculdade de Saúde Pública da Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil

Received 17 March 2000; received in revised form 20 February 2001; accepted 5 April 2001.

Abstract 

The prognostic factors related to envenoming are not very well known. This study aims to identify prognostic factors for necrosis in envenoming by Bothrops jararaca. We analysed 779 medical records of patients bitten by B. jararaca and treated at the Hospital Vital Brazil, Butantan Institute, São Paulo, Brazil, between 1982 and 1990: 111 cases with necrosis were compared with the remaining cases. The length of the snake, the bite site, the month of the accident, pain, oedema, ecchymosis, blisters, systemic bleeding, shock, and the use of tourniquet were statistically associated with the presence of necrosis (P < 0·05) in the univariate analysis. The size of the snake, the bite site (leg and finger), the sex of the patient, the month of the accident, systemic bleeding, and the use of tourniquet were independent prognostic factors within the variables tested in the multivariate analysis. The size of the snake was the most important independent prognostic factor related to the presence of necrosis.

Keywords:  snakebite, Bothrops, clinical aspects, necrosis, prognostic factors, Brazil

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PII: S0035-9203(01)90101-4

Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
Volume 95, Issue 6 , Pages 630-634, November 2001

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