Viper bite

1997/06/01 Elosegi Irurtia, Migel M. Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Zoologia
• Osasuna

In the case of the viper I could not limit myself to writing the usual article. Of all the friends I told them I had to write about the viper, none asked me what they eat, how they reproduce or what species there is in Euskal Herria. Of course! Eliminating some of the extravagant people who like these things, I realized that most just wanted to know one thing: “what should we do if we get into the vipers?” Read this article as a complement to the usual article and if you find an answer.

Poisonous snake bites cause serious medical problems that more than 40,000 people die each year in the world. Although most cases occur in places like India, Burma or Brazil, in 1982 it is estimated that in Spain every year between 3 and 7 people die. These deaths occur not only by the action of poison, but also by the reaction of the anti-poison serum. Although in Euskal Herria we have analyzed a lot of cases of poisonous snake bites, we have known a single case of death and we have not been able to confirm. The fact that we do not find cases of death may be because we do not find ourselves or that, as written in the previous article, the poison of the vipers here may be less effective.

First, in case of bite and due to the location of the teeth, the only snakes that can introduce poison in the vicinity are the vipers. Although the Montpellier snake (Malpolon monspessulanus) is poisonous, has the teeth well behind and in order to introduce the poison we should put the finger in the mouth and, of course, not many cases of poisoning of this species are known. As for the vipers, we have already mentioned that they are not aggressive animals and that use the bite as defense. Most of the poisoning cases studied were farmers, bottlers, mountaineers, or people playing on the mountain, and occurred between March and October. Here are a couple of examples to see how the bites can pass:

1. The Jabier Zubillaga leitzarra went one morning to catch the basket. Leaving the car and not having a bag to keep the keys, he decided to keep the keys under a stone. Suddenly, when he put his hand under the stone, he felt a great puncture at the tip of his finger and saw the snake. While on the road, they stopped the first car and with the other hand, holding his blood, they took him to the hospital in Pamplona. As he was very well after several serum punctures in the hospital, he returned to Leitza and that same afternoon he arbitrated a football game.
2. The case of the tolosarra Juan Inazio Elosegi was more serious. On the mountain, dressed in sandals, he was looking for mushrooms and probably after having stepped on, the viper grabbed him in the foot. Make the tourniquete and run to the road for help. When a car driver stopped and arrived at the Tolosa clinic he spent quite a while. The boot entered mareada and extremely swollen and had to spend 8 days until it was formed. For years he noticed the itching in the purple zone.

Many other cases studied were similar to those described and although the cases of poisoning in the trunk are not entirely impossible, all the visible notches are of limbs: hands and feet. It is therefore possible to prevent poisoning, since with long pants, high shoes and thick gloves it is almost impossible to poison it in the extremities.

On the other hand, we can observe that the consequences are very different in each case. If the vipers have already bitten less poison, so the influence is also lower. We must also take into account the shape of the person who has suffered the bite, his age, the time that has passed to the doctor, etc. And now, as a reader, I will try to answer the question of you and my friends.

What to do with the arrival of the vipers?

The anti-venom treatment of the snake is serum and we should try to introduce it as soon as possible. The whey mentioned arises from the hyperimmunization of the horses, introducing poisons of different species of vipers in increasing doses, and is produced by the Pasteur Institute. In addition to introducing the serum, to avoid infection it is convenient to introduce antibiotics, although the tetanus vaccine has not been given long ago. Any other treatment (corticosteroids, analgesics...) will only be used in those cases where necessary. It is believed that previously medicinal plants would be used, but unfortunately we have not been able to collect news of anti-snake herbs.

Normally, since the person suffering from the bite does not carry serum on it, we should take it to the hospital as soon as possible. It is convenient to identify the snake that has bitten us and keep in mind that the snakes leave the mark of two holes of the canines (sometimes only one) and the notches that leave many marks are the most unpoisoned snakes. Doctors, on the other hand, ask to carry the animal that has bitten us, but many times this is not possible, so they should be clear how to act in these cases (according to distribution maps, you can know what species has been).

The performance of the tourniquet may be adequate, but the risk of overtightening is greater than that of the bite itself, since ischemia and/or edema can occur due to obstruction of the venous circulation. In the same way, performing operations on canines and draining the poison can be dangerous, since the one who is aspiring from the mucosa of the mouth or small wounds can assimilate the poison.

In all cases it is necessary to give due importance to the bite and not allow time to pass to avoid serious consequences. However, it is not advisable to make the patient nervous and avoid unnecessary movements so as not to increase blood speed.

To finish, I think of raising the most complicated situation. “What would you do if you couldn’t put the serum, only in a tip of the Pyrenees, without hope of finding it if the vipers arrived?” I don’t know, perhaps the most correct thing would be to go down from top to bottom in search of help, always considering that, nervous and running, the poison expands faster in the blood. Anyway, it's better to see yourself in a movie, right?