Bites and stings — snake, spider, centipede and scorpion

Summary of changes

Medicines

  • Antivenom added as an option for redback spider bites
  • Deleted Oxycodon from pain in redback spider, recommend medical consult

Other

  • Protocol reordered by order of urgency/severity

Primary references

  1. Balit CR, Harvey MS, Waldock JM and Isbister GK (2004) 'Prospective study of centipede bites in Australia', Journal of Toxicology: Clinical Toxicology, 42(1):41-8, doi:10.1081/clt-120028743

  2. Currie BJ (2004) 'Snakebite in Australia: the role of the Venom Detection Kit', Emergency Medicine Australasia, 16(5-6):384-6, doi:10.1111/j.1742-6723.2004.00640.x

  3. Dart RC, Bogdan G, Heard K, Bucher Bartelson B, Garcia-Ubbelohde W, Bush S, Arnold T, Clark RC, Hendey GW, Holstege C and Spradley EA (2013) 'A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of a highly purified equine F(ab)2 antibody black widow spider antivenom', Annals of Emergency Medicine, 61(4):458-67, doi:10.1016/j.annemergmed.2012.10.008

  4. Ellis RM, Sprivulis PC, Jelinek GA, Banham ND, Wood SV, Wilkes GJ, Siegmund A and Roberts BL (2005) 'A double-blind, randomized trial of intravenous versus intramuscular antivenom for red-back spider envenoming', Emergency Medicine Australasia, 17(2):152-6, doi:10.1111/j.1742-6723.2005.00720.x

  5. Isbister GK and Bawaskar HS (2014) 'Scorpion envenomation', New England Journal of Medicine, 371(5):457-63, doi:10.1056/NEJMra1401108

  6. Isbister GK, Brown SG, Page CB, McCoubrie DL, Greene SL and Buckley NA (2013) 'Snakebite in Australia: a practical approach to diagnosis and treatment', Medical Journal of Australia, 199(11):763-8, doi:10.5694/mja12.11172

  7. Isbister GK, Maduwage K, Shahmy S, Mohamed F, Abeysinghe C, Karunathilake H, Ariaratnam CA and Buckley NA (2013) 'Diagnostic 20-min whole blood clotting test in Russell's viper envenoming delays antivenom administration', QJM: Monthly Journal of the Association of Physicians, 106(10):925-32, doi:10.1093/qjmed/hct102

  8. Isbister GK, O'Leary M, Miller M, Brown SG, Ramasamy S, James R and Schneider JS (2008) 'A comparison of serum antivenom concentrations after intravenous and intramuscular administration of redback (widow) spider antivenom', British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 65(1):139-43, doi:10.1111/j.1365-2125.2007.03004.x

  9. NSW Government Ministry of Health (2014) Snakebite and Spiderbite Clinical Management Guidelines, 3rd Edition, accessed 11 January 2022.

  10. RAVE Investigators (2014) 'Randomized controlled trial of intravenous antivenom versus placebo for latrodectism: the second Redback Antivenom Evaluation (RAVE-II) study', Annals of Emergency Medicine, 64(6):620-8.e2, doi:10.1016/j.annemergmed.2014.06.006