Early debridement in pit viper bites

T. G. Glass Jr

From my observations of snakebite over the last 22 years and the studies I have done, several things are important: (1) Pit viper envenomation is a surgical emergency as is any disease in which gangrene of human tissue occurs. (2) Severe pit viper envenomation causes complex problems similar to those seen in Gram-negative septicemia, and they require complex methods of treatment. (3) Early surgical inspection of the snakebite wound is as essential as early appendectomy in appendicitis. Its results are as gratifying. (4) Present knowledge of anesthesia, coagulation problems, infections and antibiotics, blood gas changes, electrolytes and fluid therapy, and other advances in the surgical field allow the physician to treat severe pit viper envenomation by scientific means rather than by hocus-pocus. (5) Crippling from pit viper envenomation is caused by too little treatment, too much first aid, or both.