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The Incidence of Infection Complicating Snakebites in Tropical Australia: Implications for Clinical Management and Antimicrobial Prophylaxis
OBJECTIVE: To define the incidence of infection following snakebite in tropical Australia and the resulting implications for the routine prescription of prophylactic antibiotics. METHODS: A retrospective study of all individuals presenting to Cairns Hospital, a tertiary referral hospital in tropical...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Hindawi
2023
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10586896/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37868739 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2023/5812766 |
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author | Smith, Laura K. Vardanega, John Smith, Simon White, Julian Little, Mark Hanson, Josh |
author_facet | Smith, Laura K. Vardanega, John Smith, Simon White, Julian Little, Mark Hanson, Josh |
author_sort | Smith, Laura K. |
collection | PubMed |
description | OBJECTIVE: To define the incidence of infection following snakebite in tropical Australia and the resulting implications for the routine prescription of prophylactic antibiotics. METHODS: A retrospective study of all individuals presenting to Cairns Hospital, a tertiary referral hospital in tropical Australia, after a snakebite between December 2013 and October 2020. RESULTS: There were 732 hospitalisations, 720 (98.4%) patients presented within 8 hours of the snakebite, and 29/732 (4.0%) were envenomated. Envenomated patients were more likely to receive empirical antibiotics than nonenvenomated patients (8/29 (27.6%) versus 14/703 (2.0%), p < 0.001), although this was frequently as a bundle of care for critically ill individuals. Superficial skin infection was diagnosed by clinicians in 6/732 (0.8%) patients during their hospitalisation; infection was diagnosed more commonly in envenomated than in nonenvenomated patients (3/29 (10.3%) versus 3/703 (0.4%), p = 0.001). All 3 envenomated individuals diagnosed with infection were believed to have taipan (genus Oxyuranus) bites. Five (83%) of the six patients diagnosed with infection had received empirical antibiotics at presentation; only 1/710 (0.1%) patients who received no antibiotics developed a (superficial) infection. CONCLUSION: Infection is a very uncommon complication of snakebite in tropical Australia. Individuals bitten by snakes in tropical Australia should not routinely receive antibiotic prophylaxis. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-10586896 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2023 |
publisher | Hindawi |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-105868962023-10-20 The Incidence of Infection Complicating Snakebites in Tropical Australia: Implications for Clinical Management and Antimicrobial Prophylaxis Smith, Laura K. Vardanega, John Smith, Simon White, Julian Little, Mark Hanson, Josh J Trop Med Research Article OBJECTIVE: To define the incidence of infection following snakebite in tropical Australia and the resulting implications for the routine prescription of prophylactic antibiotics. METHODS: A retrospective study of all individuals presenting to Cairns Hospital, a tertiary referral hospital in tropical Australia, after a snakebite between December 2013 and October 2020. RESULTS: There were 732 hospitalisations, 720 (98.4%) patients presented within 8 hours of the snakebite, and 29/732 (4.0%) were envenomated. Envenomated patients were more likely to receive empirical antibiotics than nonenvenomated patients (8/29 (27.6%) versus 14/703 (2.0%), p < 0.001), although this was frequently as a bundle of care for critically ill individuals. Superficial skin infection was diagnosed by clinicians in 6/732 (0.8%) patients during their hospitalisation; infection was diagnosed more commonly in envenomated than in nonenvenomated patients (3/29 (10.3%) versus 3/703 (0.4%), p = 0.001). All 3 envenomated individuals diagnosed with infection were believed to have taipan (genus Oxyuranus) bites. Five (83%) of the six patients diagnosed with infection had received empirical antibiotics at presentation; only 1/710 (0.1%) patients who received no antibiotics developed a (superficial) infection. CONCLUSION: Infection is a very uncommon complication of snakebite in tropical Australia. Individuals bitten by snakes in tropical Australia should not routinely receive antibiotic prophylaxis. Hindawi 2023-10-12 /pmc/articles/PMC10586896/ /pubmed/37868739 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2023/5812766 Text en Copyright © 2023 Laura K. Smith et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Smith, Laura K. Vardanega, John Smith, Simon White, Julian Little, Mark Hanson, Josh The Incidence of Infection Complicating Snakebites in Tropical Australia: Implications for Clinical Management and Antimicrobial Prophylaxis |
title | The Incidence of Infection Complicating Snakebites in Tropical Australia: Implications for Clinical Management and Antimicrobial Prophylaxis |
title_full | The Incidence of Infection Complicating Snakebites in Tropical Australia: Implications for Clinical Management and Antimicrobial Prophylaxis |
title_fullStr | The Incidence of Infection Complicating Snakebites in Tropical Australia: Implications for Clinical Management and Antimicrobial Prophylaxis |
title_full_unstemmed | The Incidence of Infection Complicating Snakebites in Tropical Australia: Implications for Clinical Management and Antimicrobial Prophylaxis |
title_short | The Incidence of Infection Complicating Snakebites in Tropical Australia: Implications for Clinical Management and Antimicrobial Prophylaxis |
title_sort | incidence of infection complicating snakebites in tropical australia: implications for clinical management and antimicrobial prophylaxis |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10586896/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37868739 http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2023/5812766 |
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