Spotted black snake (Pseudechis guttatus) envenoming

Coagulant effects of black snake (Pseudechis spp.) venoms and in vitro efficacy of commercial antivenom

“…An anticoagulant coagulopathy has now been reported in envenoming by P. porphyriacus (Churchman et al, 2010), P. australis (Campbell, 1984;Currie, 2004), P. colletti (Isbister et al, 2006) and P. papuanus (Lalloo et al, 1994), but was not evident in P. guttatus (Jansen et al, 2007) envenoming. However, the small number of cases does not rule out the Table 2 Immunological cross reactivity of all six Pseudechis venoms, N. scutatus and O. scutellatus venoms with antibodies to P. porphyriacus, P. australis and N. scutatus.…”

“…The two most common and clinically significant black snakes, Pseudechis porphyriacus (Red-bellied black snake) and Pseudechis australis (Mulga snake) are found along the East Coast of Australia and throughout mainland Australia respectively (Cogger, 2000). Other members of the genus include Pseudechis butleri (Butler's snake), Pseudechis colletti (Collett's snake), Pseudechis guttatus (Spotted or blue-bellied black snake) and Pseudechis papuanus (Papuan black snake) which are less widespread in Australasia and cause far fewer bites (Isbister et al, 2006;Jansen et al, 2007).…”

“…The current clinical knowledge regarding envenoming by black snakes comes mainly from case reports and anecdotes. Effects of envenoming include systemic symptoms, myotoxicity, anticoagulant coagulopathy, and localised effects at the bite site which rarely result in necrosis (Vines, 1978;Campbell, 1984;Lalloo et al, 1994;Pearn et al, 2000;Currie, 2004;Isbister et al, 2006;Jansen et al, 2007;Churchman et al, 2010). Myotoxicity appears to be the most important clinical effect and may result in acute renal failure in some cases.…”

Terrestrial Snakes (Suborder: Serpentes)

“…318 Initial symptoms include lightheadedness, diaphoresis, headache, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and painful regional lymph nodes. 319 The brown snake ( Pseudonaja spp. Systemic symptoms following envenomation by the redbellied black snake ( Pseudechis porphyriacus ) and the spotted black snake ( Pseudechis guttatus) are typically mild (e.g., headache, blurred vision, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, upper abdominal cramping, diaphoresis).…”

Review of the Mechanisms of Snake Venom Induced Pain: It’s All about Location, Location, Location

“…However, in the maelstrom of this event, the cause and nature of the painful experience associated with envenomation may be as varied as the biochemical and proteomic composition of the venom [1][2][3] to which the bitten are exposed. Acute local pain [4,5] can spread systemically, experienced as headache [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16], eye pain [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28], chest pain [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34], focal back pain [34,35], abdominal pain [5,33,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46...…”