Incidence and Clinical Features of Snakebite Cellulitis at Kims, Hubli

Abstract

BACKGROUND: A single centre study was planned to asses the incidence and clinical feature of snake bite cellulitis in order to find out the nature and burden of the disease. OBJECTIVES: To assess incidence and clinical features of snake bite cellulitis. METHODOLOGY: This present one year prospective study was conducted in the Department of Surgery, Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences, Hubli. Out of 520 total cases of snake bites 66 patients with cellulitis changes were studied. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The data obtained was coded and entered in Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet. The categorical data was expressed as rates, ratios and percentages. RESULTS: Out of 520 total snake bite cases, 66 patients developed signs of cellulitis. In patients with cellulitis 49(74.24%) were males and 17(25.75%) were females. In patients with cellulitis, most were aged between 31 to 45 years (36.36%) and 19 to 30 years (34.84.The mean age of the study population was 32.43 ± 13.75 years. Majority of the patients (74.24%) had snake bite on lower limbs. Most common symptom complex noted was pain + swelling in 30(39.39%) of the patients followed by pain in 9(13.6%), swelling in 6(9%), pain+swelling+fever in 4(6%), pain + discolouration in 2(3%) and pain + fever in 1(1.5%) of the patients. CONCLUSIONS: The present study shows high incidence of cellulitis in patients with snake bite and most common clinical feature is cellulitis is pain + swelling. So in any case of snake of snake bite we should take the proper precautionary measures to prevent cellulitis. If cellulitis has already formed, then it should be treated without delay in order to prevent limb loss, compartment syndrome, other morbidities and even death.