TOURNIQUET INEFFECTIVENESS TO REDUCE THE SEVERITY OF ENVENOMING AFTERCROTALUS-DURISSUS SNAKE BITE IN BELO-HORIZONTE, MINAS-GERAIS, BRAZIL

Clinical and laboratory data from patients who applied a tourniquet (t ourniquet group, n = 45) and who did not apply it (non-tourniquet grou p, n = 52) after being bitten by Crotalus durissus were compared. The patients were treated with 100-200 mi of Crotalus durissus antivenom. The gender, age, time elapsed between bite and hospital admission, dos e of antivenom and the frequency of local paresthesia, myalgia and pal pebral ptosis did not differ between the two groups. Plasma creatine k inase enzyme activity and partial thromboplastin time, plasma whole ve nom and crotoxin concentrations and the frequency of acute renal and r espiratory failure and number of deaths also did not differ between bo th groups. Data from this study show the ineffectiveness of tourniquet applied by patients in the fields to reduce the severity of Crotalus durissus envenoming. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserve d.