Profile of snake bite patients and their outcome: Our experience at a tertiary care hospital in Vadodara

 

 

Abstract              Background: Snake bite is a common medical emergency in a tropical country like India where a majority of people depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Objective - To study the profile and outcome of snake bite patients. Material and Methods: This was a retrospective study carried out in GMERS Medical College and General Hospital, Gotri-Vadodara from 1st January 2017 to 31st December 2018. Records of 114 snake bite patients were studied, data was collected and statistically analysed. Observation: 114 patients were admitted with snake bite. 28.1% patients belonged to age group of 31 – 40 years. A majority of patients were males (52.6%), married (82.5%), and from rural areas (81.6%). 39.5 % patients were farmers. More incidents occurred in July-September (64.9%), during day time (56.1%). outdoors (57 %) and were unprovoked (99.1%). 85 % patients came directly to our hospital. 52.6% patients were bitten over lower limbs. Most common presenting features were local pain (78.9%), fang marks (76.3%), local swelling (74.6%), and respiratory paralysis (14.9%). Neurotoxicity was present in 14.9% patients. Conclusion: Need for mechanical ventilation, inotropic support, total leucocyte count on presentation > 11000 /cumm, serum creatinine on presentation > 1.4 mg/dl, serum bilirubin on presentation >1 mg/dl and the presence of neurotoxicity were associated with poor outcome in our centre.

Key Words: anti-snake venom, neurotoxic, snake bite, vasculotoxic.