Snake bite poison

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Snake bite on the finger

Overview

Symptoms

Treatment

Snake bite poison

Home Treatment:

If within 40 minutes of an emergency room: Remove any restrictive clothing, rings, and watches. Have the patient rest. Keep the patient warm. Get the patient to the emergency room as soon as possible.

If farther than 40 minutes from an emergency room, see the injuries document on snake bite for information.

Before Calling Emergency:

Determine the following information:

the patient's age, weight, and condition
identification of the snake if possible
the time bitten
the location on the body of the bite

Poison Control, or a local emergency number:

A call is probably not necessary unless summoning an emergency vehicle, as the patient should be seen in an emergency room to determine if the bite contains any poison.

Some snake bites are from nonpoisonous snakes, but 20-30% of the bites from poisonous snakes do not actually inject poison into the wound site and can therefore be treated as a puncture wound.

What to expect at the emergency room:

Some or all of the following procedures may be performed:

Make an evaluation to determine if poison was injected into the wound site
Give antivenom if necessary
Give antitetanus shot if needed
Treat the symptoms

Expectations (prognosis):

If treatment is obtained soon enough, only a small percentage of those bitten by a poisonous snake die.

Review Date: 2/13/2006
Reviewed By: Eric Perez, M.D., Department of Emergency Medicine, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York, NY. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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