background: one of the important sites for extrapulmonary tb involvement is the skeleton. tuberculous spondylitis (pott’s disease) comprises 50-70% of the skeletal tuberculosis. methods: in this case series study, we prospectively investigated the result of anterior surgery alone (anterior debridement, fusion and instrumentation) in the patients with spinal tuberculosis. the patients with immat...

The aim of this study was to describe the epidemiological profile of snakebite accidents reported by the toxicological assistance center in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil. Database information on snakebite accidents was analyzed regarding the period from January 2003 to December 2011. A total of 1063 cases were found. The accidents occurred during the rainy months (March, April and May), in urban are...

The "function debate" in the philosophy of biology and the "venom debate" in the science of toxinology are conceptually related. Venom systems are complex multifunctional traits that have evolved independently numerous times throughout the animal kingdom. No single concept of function, amongst those popularly defended, appears adequate to describe these systems in all their evolutionary context...

Venom represents one of the most extreme manifestations of a chemical arms race. Venoms are complex biochemical arsenals, often containing hundreds to thousands of unique protein toxins. Despite their utility for prey capture, venoms are energetically expensive commodities, and consequently it is hypothesized that venom complexity is inversely related to the capacity of a venomous animal to phy...

CASE PRESENTATION A 54-year-old man presented to the emergency room following a scorpion sting to the right index finger. He had been unloading a shipment of mangoes from South America and noted a small scorpion in the box, which he picked up and then killed after the sting (Figure 1A). Following the envenomation, he experienced acute paresthesia localized to the right arm, up to the elbow. He ...