Mt. Jorge et al., A RANDOMIZED BLINDED COMPARISON OF 2 DOSES OF ANTIVENOM IN THE TREATMENT OF BOTHROPS ENVENOMING IN SAO-PAULO, BRAZIL, Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 89(1), 1995, pp. 111-114
Citations number
20
Categorie Soggetti
Public, Environmental & Occupation Heath","Tropical Medicine
An earlier study in Sao Paulo state suggested that the dose for patien
ts with mild or moderate envenoming by Bothrops snakes (mainly Bothrop
s jararaca) could be effectively decreased to 4 ampoules (40 mL) of Br
azilian Bothrops polyspecific antivenom. The present 'blinded' study e
xamined the lowest dose studied in the first trial (equivalent to 4 x
10 mL ampoules) and half that dose of antivenom (equivalent to 2 x 10
mL ampoules) in 2 similar groups of 170 patients who were comparable i
n all respects before treatment. The majority of patients showed rapid
clinical improvement after treatment with either dose regimen and rap
id restoration of blood coagulability and cessation of bleeding. There
was no apparent difference between the 2 groups of patients in any re
spect. The study confirmed that, in such patients, the dose of antiven
om can be decreased from 4 ampoules to 2 ampoules without reduction of
therapeutic efficacy and it is highly likely that this reduction will
result in a decrease of early anaphylactic reactions caused by the an
tivenom.