ABSTRACT
Eighty-four patients bitten by venomous snakes were studied retrospectively at the School of Medicine of Marília from January 1990 to August 1994. The majority of these patients were rural workers, 65 (77.38 per cent] males and 19 (22.62 per cent) females, aged eight to seventy-five. Forty-three (51.19 per cent) patients were diagnosed as having been bitten by snakes of the genus Bothrops and 41 (48.81 per cent) by Crotalus. Fifty-eight patients (69.04 per cent ) were bitten in the legs and 26 (30.96 per cent ) in the arms. January, March, April and November were the months of higher incidence of bothropic envenomations, while crotalic envenomations were not recorded only in August and September. This study showed that the prevalence of crotalic envenomations in Marília was higher than that of any other regions in Brazil. Further prospective epidemiological studies are needed for a better understanding of these findings.