A case of envenomation by the false fer-de-lance snake Leptodeira annulata (Linnaeus, 1758) in the department of La Guajira, Colombia
Abstract
Envenomations by colubrid snakes in Colombia are poorly known, consequently, the clinical relevance of these species in snakebite accidents has been historically underestimated. Herein, we report the first case of envenomation by opisthoglyphous snakes in Colombia occurred under fieldwork conditions at the municipality of Distracción, in the department of La Guajira. A female biologist was bitten on the index finger knuckle of her right hand when she tried to handle a false fer-de-lance snake (Leptodeira annulata). Ten minutes after the snakebite, the patient started to have symptoms of mild local envenomation such as edema, itching, and pain in the wound. After 40 minutes, the edema reached its maximum extension covering the dorsal surface of the right hand and causing complete loss of mobility. The clinical treatment focused on pain and swelling control. No laboratory tests were performed. The patient showed good progress with the total regression of the edema 120 hours after the snake-bite accident and complete recovery of the movement of the limb in one week. Venomous bites of “non-venomous snakes” (opisthoglyphous colubrid snakes) must be considered as a significant public health problem because patients lose their work capability during hours or even days and they are forced to seek medical assistance to treat the envenomation manifestations.
Downloads
References
Instituto Nacional de Salud. Informe del evento accidente ofídico, Colombia, 2016. Bogotá: Instituto Nacional de Salud; 2016.
Chippaux JP. Incidence and mortality due to snakebite in the Americas. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2017;11:e0005662. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0005662
Otero-Patiño R. Snakebites in Colombia. In: Gopalakrishnakone P, Vogel CW, Seifert S, Tambourgi D, editors. Clinical toxicology in Australia, Europe, and the Americas. Toxinology. Dordrecht: Springer; 2018. p. 3-50. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7438-3_41
Weinstein SA, Warrell DA, White J, Keyler DE. Venomous bites from non-venomous snakes: A critical analysis of risk and management of colubrid snake bites. First edition. Burlington, MA: Elsevier Ltd; 2011. p. 364.
Lynch JD. El contexto de las serpientes de Colombia con un análisis de las amenazas en contra de su conservación. Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. 2012;36:435-49.
Lynch JD, Angarita-Sierra T, Ruiz FJ. Programa Nacional para la Conservación de las Serpientes Presentes en Colombia. Bogotá: Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Instituto Nacional de Salud; 2014. p. 128.
de Araújo PF, da Silva WM, de França RC, França FG. A case of envenomation by Neotropical opisthoglyphous snake Thamnodynastes pallidus (Linnaeus, 1758) (Colubridae: Dipsadinae: Tachymenini) in Brazil. Rev Inst Med Trop Sao Paulo. 2018;60:11-4. https://doi.org/10.1590/s1678-9946201860038
Daza JM, Smith EN, Páez VP, Parkinson CL. Complex evolution in the Neotropics: The origin and diversification of the widespread genus Leptodeira (Serpentes: Colubridae). Mol Phylogenet Evol. 2009;53:653-67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ympev.2009.07.022
Mendoza I. Defensive behavior in Leptodeira annulata ashmeadii (Hallowell, 1845). Herpetotropicos. 2008;5:67.
Duellman WE. A monographic study of the colubrid snake genus Leptodeira. Bull Am Museum Nat Hist. 1958;114:1-152.
Gorzula S. Leptodeira annulata ashmedeadii envenomation. SSAR Herpetological Review. 1982;13:47.
Warrell DA. Epidemiology, clinical features, and clinical management. In: Campbell JA, Lamar WW, editors. The venomous reptiles of the Western Hemisphere. First edition. Ithaca: Cornell Press; 2004. p. 709-61.
Torres-Bonilla KA, Schezaro-Ramos R, Floriano RS, Rodrigues-Simioni L, Bernal-Bautista MH, Alice da Cruz-Höfling M. Biological activities of Leptodeira annulata (banded cat-eyed snake) venom on vertebrate neuromuscular preparations. Toxicon. 2016;119:345-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.toxicon.2016.07.004
de Medeiros CR, Hess P, Nicoleti AF, Sueiro LR, Duarte MR, de Almeida-Santos S, et al. Bites by the colubrid snake Philodryas patagoniensis: A clinical and epidemiological study of 297 cases. Toxicon. 2010;56:101-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.toxicon.2010.07.006
Prado-Franceschi J, Hyslop, S. South American colubrid envenomation. J Toxicol. 2002;21:117-58. https://doi.org/10.1081/TXR-120004744
Weinstein SA, Griffin R, Ismail AK. Non-front-fanged colubroid (“colubrid”) snakebites: Three cases of local envenoming by the mangrove or ringed cat-eyed snake (Boiga dendrophila; Colubridae, Colubrinae), the Western beaked snake (Rhamphiophis oxyrhynchus; Lamprophiidae, Psammophinae) and the rain forest cat-eyed snake (Leptodeira frenata; Dipsadidae). Clin Toxicol (Phila). 2014;52:277-82. https://doi.org/10.3109/15563650.2014.897352
Nelwan EJ, Adiwinata R, Handayani S, Rinaldi I. Severe coagulophaty and transient hypertension following Rhabdophis subminiatus bite. Rev Soc Bras Med Trop. 2016;49:520-2. https://doi.org/10.1590/0037-8682-0314-2015
Weinstein S, White J, Keyler D, Warrell D. Non-front-fanged colubrois snakes: A current evidence-based analyses of medical significance. Toxicon. 2013;69:103-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.toxicon.2013.02.003
Pham HX, Mullins ME. Safety of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in copperhead snakebite patients. Clin Toxicol (Phila). 2018;56:1121-7. https://doi.org/10.1080/15563650.2018.1468447
Diaz F, Navarrete LF, Pefaur J, Rodríguez-Acosta A. Envenomation by neotropical opistoglyphous colubrid Thamnodynastes cf. pallidus Linné, 1758 (Serpentes: Colubridae) in Venezuela. Rev Inst Med Trop Sao Paulo. 2004;46:287-90. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0036-46652004000500011
August JA, Boesen KJ, Shirazi FM, Klotz SA. Prophylactic antibiotics are not needed following rattlesnake bites. Am J Med. 2018;131:1367-71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjmed.2018.06.006
Gillet Y, Lorrot M, Cohen R, Hau I, Grimprel E., Gras-Le Guen C. Antibiothérapie des infections cutanées. Arch Pediatr. 2017;24: S26-31.
Roth ED, Johnson JA. Size-based variation in antipredator behavior within a snake (Agkistrodon piscivorus) population. Behav Ecol. 2004;15:365-70.
Angarita-Sierra T. Repertoire of antipredator displays in the semifossorial snake Ninia atrata (Hallowell, 1845). Herpetol Notes. 2015;8:339-44.
Instituto Nacional de Salud. Informe evento accidente ofídico, periodo epidemiológico VIII Colombia, 2018. Bogotá; INS; 2018. Accessed on: July 23, 2018. Available from: https://www.ins.gov.co/buscador-eventos/BoletinEpidemiologico/2018 Boletín Epidemiológico,semana 46.pdf
Some similar items:
- Elizabeth Borrero, Gabriel Carrasquilla, Neal Alexander, Decentralization and health system reform: What is their impact on malaria incidence in Colombian municipalities? , Biomedica: Vol. 32 (2012): Suplemento 1, Malaria
- Raúl Murillo, Ricardo Cendales, Carolina Wiesner, Marion Piñeros, Sandra Tovar, Effectiveness of cytology-based cervical cancer screening in the Colombian health system , Biomedica: Vol. 29 No. 3 (2009)
- Sandra Lorena Girón, Julio César Mateus, Fabián Méndez, Impact of an open waste disposal site on the occurrence of respiratory symptoms and on health care costs of children , Biomedica: Vol. 29 No. 3 (2009)
- José Joaquín Carvajal, Ligia Inés Moncada, Mauricio Humberto Rodríguez, Ligia del Pilar Pérez, Víctor Alberto Olano, Characterization of Aedes albopictus (Skuse, 1894) (Diptera:Culicidae) larval habitats near the Amazon River in Colombia , Biomedica: Vol. 29 No. 3 (2009)
- Andrés Páez, Gloria Rey, Carlos Agudelo, Alvaro Dulce, Edgar Parra, Hernando Díaz-Granados, Damaris Heredia, Luis Polo, Outbreak of urban rabies transmitted by dogs in Santa Marta, northern Colombia , Biomedica: Vol. 29 No. 3 (2009)
- Patricia Escobar, Katherine Paola Luna, Indira Paola Hernández, César Mauricio Rueda, María Magdalena Zorro, Simon L. Croft, In vitro susceptibility of Trypanosoma cruzi strains from Santander, Colombia, to hexadecylphosphocholine (miltefosine), nifurtimox and benznidazole , Biomedica: Vol. 29 No. 3 (2009)
- Gustavo Pradilla, Julio César Mantilla, Reynaldo Badillo, Human rabies encephalitis by a vampire bat bite in an urban area of Colombia , Biomedica: Vol. 29 No. 2 (2009)
- Mauricio Beltrán, María Cristina Navas, María Patricia Arbeláez, Jorge Donado, Sergio Jaramillo, Fernando De la Hoz, Cecilia Estrada, Lucía del Pilar Cortés, Amalia de Maldonado, Gloria Rey, Seroprevalence of hepatitis B virus and human immunodeficiency virus infection in a population of multiply-transfused patients in Colombia , Biomedica: Vol. 29 No. 2 (2009)
- Rosa Magdalena Uscátegui, Adriana M. Correa, Jaime Carmona-Fonseca, Changes in retinol, hemoglobin and ferritin concentrations in Colombian children with malaria , Biomedica: Vol. 29 No. 2 (2009)
- Claudia M.E. Romero-Vivas, Luis Eduardo Castro, Lila Visbal, Ana María Santos, Esther Díaz, Cutaneous myiasis by Cochliomyia hominivorax (Coquerel) (Díptera Calliphoridae) in Hospital Universidad del Norte, Soledad, Atlántico , Biomedica: Vol. 29 No. 1 (2009)
| Article metrics | |
|---|---|
| Abstract views | |
| Galley vies | |
| PDF Views | |
| HTML views | |
| Other views | |
