A Retrospective Study on Snake Bites in a Tertiary Care Center in Mid Western Nepal

Snake bite and Toxicology

Background: Snake bites are common in tropical countries. Snakes bites are prevalent in terai and inner terai consisting of 23 districts in southern part of Nepal especially during monsoon. The morbidity due to snake bite in this area is not known. Thus we aimed to analyze the hospital records and snake bite registers to know about the epidemiological and clinical aspects of snake bite patients. Methodology: This was a retrospective study conducted at Bheri Hospital Nepalgunj, Nepal between may 2020 to november 2020. The patients’ records were collected and relevant details were noted down. Descriptive statistics like frequency and percentages were used for analysis. Results: 107 cases of snake envenmation were admitted during the study period. 57(53.27%) of them were males and 50(46.72%) were female. Snake bite was most prevalent in 16-30 age group 45(42.05%). Most of the people were bitten inside the house during sleeping or work 62(57.94%). Most of the patients developed neurotoxic symptoms and krait was the common snake responsible for envenomation. Ptosis 81(75.70%) was the most common clinical feature followed by shortness of breath 50(46.72%) and epigastric pain/ throat discomfort 31(28.97%). Polyvalent Anti Snake Venom (ASV) was used. The average number of ASV vials used was 8.75 vials. 103(96.26%) of the cases was successfully discharged after treatment with mortality of 4(3.73%) patients. Conclusions: Snake bite is common health hazards during monsoon season. Krait bites are common bites with neurotoxic features. Early recognition and treatment by ASV is life saving. Health facility strengthening is key to success. Snake bite awareness campaign should be run at community level.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.