Black widow spider bites experience from tertiary care center in Saudi Arabia

INTRODUCTION: Black widow spiders are one of the most poisonous species to humans; there are more than 30 species of widow spiders in the globe but good thing that not all of them are dangerous. Some of these spiders produce toxic venoms, which cause broad spectrum of clinical manifestations including skin lesions, neurotoxicity, cardiac toxicity and death in some occasions. In Saudi Arabia there were no much reports of black widow spider bites apart from the case series by BUCUR and his group in ALBAHA region. SETTINGS: In 2 years period a total of 8 patients were presented to the emergency departments diagnosed to have black widow spider bites based on description by the patients. RESULTS: 100 % of the cohort were males, aged between 25-58 years. The time between bite and presentation to emergency room was one hour in average (30 min to 4 hours). 75% occured during summer season. All of them 100% had one bite only and reported the bite to be at nighttime in 75% of the times. The average pain score at presentation was 4 /10.100% of the bites were in the lower extremities and almost all progressed to have lower back pain. Three patients had gastrointestinal tract manifestation in form of abdominal cramps and nausea. One had bilateral ptosis, none of them had cardiac or pulmonary complications. The outcome was excellent in all patients and the average of hospital stay was 2.5 days (1-5).