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U.VA. HEALTH SYSTEM EMERGENCY ROOM SEEING HIGH INCIDENCE OF SNAKE BITES

Warm summer nights are usually pleasant, especially after a rainstorm. Humans however, are not the only ones who enjoy this type of weather. It's also the time that snakes tend to appear. This is especially evident in Charlottesville where physicians in the University of Virginia Health System emergency room are seeing a high incidence of snakebites. What is worse, some of these patients are treating themselves before they come to the hospital and doing more damage to their injuries.

We are seeing a number of snakebite patients come in who have resorted to the old John Wayne style of first aid, said Dr. Christopher Holstege, emergency room physician, director of the Blue Ridge Poison Center at U.Va. Health System and one of two boarded toxicologists in Virginia. Patients commonly try to suck out the venom or use a tourniquet which makes the wound much worse than if they had left it alone.

First aid for a snake victim should be administered in the following ways:

  • Get the victim away from the snake.

  • Check the snakebite for puncture wounds. If one or two fang markings are visible or the wound turns swollen or bruised, the bite may have come from a poisonous snake.

  • Keep the victim calm. If possible, the victim should remain still and the bitten extremity splinted.

  • Clean the wound with soap and water.

  • DO NOT cut the bite site, apply a tourniquet, apply extreme heat or cold or suck the wound with your mouth.

  • Watch for general symptoms (i.e. sharp pain, bruising, swelling around the bite, weakness, shortness of breath, blurred vision, drowsiness or vomiting).

  • Get the victim to the hospital as soon as possible.

Snake bite victims are treated in hospitals with one of two types of antivenom: Crotalidae Polyvalent Immune Fab (CroFab) or Wyeth antivenom. CroFab, an antivenom released this year, is derived from the blood of healthy sheep flocks immunized with various snake venoms. For more information contact the Blue Ridge Poison Center at
1-800-451-1428.

June 28, 2001