Wepresent twocasesof cardiomyopathy in life-threatening funnel-webspider envenoming.A33-yearoldman bitten by amale Sydney funnel-web spider developed autonomic and neuromuscular excess, pulmonary oedema, hypotension and cardiogenic shock. Hewas treatedwith antivenom, dobutamine, noradrenaline and high-dose insulin, and recovered over 4 days. Echocardiograms showed severe systolic dysfunction, a...

BACKGROUND Spider bite is a subject of much medical mythology with prevalent fears that spiders cause severe envenoming, with neurotoxic effects or necrotic ulcers. Clinical experience and small studies suggest otherwise, but this has not been confirmed by prospective studies of bites by identified spiders. AIM To describe the clinical effects of bites by accurately identified spiders, and de...

Accepted 15 October 2012 Published Online First 13 December 2012 ABSTRACT Objective To describe trends regarding snakebite enquiries to the UK National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) from 2004 to 2010. Methods The NPIS telephone enquiry database, the UK Poisons Information Database, was interrogated for enquiries to the four NPIS units from 2004 to 2010. Search terms used were ‘snake’ and ‘...

BACKGROUND Hump-nosed viper bite is the commonest cause of venomous snakebite in Sri Lanka. Despite initially being considered a moderately venomous snake more recent reports have revealed that it could cause significant systemic envenoming leading to coagulopathy and acute kidney injury. However, myocardial infarction was not reported except for a single case, which occurred immediately after ...

The yellow Iranian scorpion Odontobuthus doriae can cause fatal envenoming, but its mechanism of action is unclear. One of the reported manifestations of envenoming is moderate to severe involuntary tremor of skeletal muscle. In order to understand better the mechanism of action of this venom on skeletal muscle function, we examined the effects of the venom in vitro on chick biventer cervicis (...