RESUMO
The Venom Ex apparatus has been evaluated for the treatment of puff adder bite. Rabbits were injected with double the lethal dose of puff adder venom, followed by treatment with the Venom Ex cutting and suction apparatus. Controls received no treatment. The percentage of venom extracted as determined by radial immunodiffusion was very low after intramuscular injection and significantly higher after subcutaneous injection. However, all treated and control animals injected subcutaneously, recovered while all animals injected intramuscularly died, irrespective of treatment. Blood venom levels were extremely low in all animals. Venom Ex treatment did not improve survival or affect local necrosis significantly.
Assuntos
Mordeduras de Serpentes/terapia , Animais , Estudos de Avaliação como Assunto , Coelhos , Sucção/instrumentação , Venenos de VíborasRESUMO
1. Plasma and serum samples obtained from various animals never previously exposed to snakes or snake venom were diffused against different concentrations of puff-adder, Bitis arietans, venom using the double immunodiffusion technique. 2. Depending upon venom concentration, two precipitin arcs could be produced in the case of all plasma samples used. No serum samples showed any arcs except pigeon serum, where one precipitin line was observed. 3. By altering the concentration of snake venom between 1% and 10% when immunodiffusing against plasma a change in position of the precipitin lines was observed and also the disappearance of one or both of the two bands at higher concentrations. This indicates that the arcs observed are in all probability due to precipitation of plasma protein fractions. 4. Previous results indicated that one of the two bands observed when diffusing venom against plasma was due to the precipitation of fibrinogen. By diffusing snake venom against heparin we have now shown that the second band involves this molecule and is not due to another coagulation factor as was suggested previously.