Background: Venomous snake bites can constitute medical emergencies, and without immediate care can be life threatening.
Objective: To characterize children suffering from snake bites in comparison to adults.
Methods: Data from the medical records of all patients diagnosed with venomous snake bite injury in the Hadassah Medical Centers, in Jerusalem, Israel, from 1/1/2004 to 31/07/2018 were collected and analyzed. Pediatric (
Results: During the study period, 104 patients were diagnosed with snake bite related injury. The average age (±SD) at presentation was 28.6 (±18.2) years, of whom 32 (30.7%) were children. In the pediatric group, more females were found when compared to adults (43.8% vs 20.8%; p=0.01). Vipera palaestinae composed 64.7% of all recognizable snakes followed by Echis (27.8%) and Atractaspis engaddensis (7.4%) no statistical deference regarding snake type was found between children and adults. cardiovascular symptoms were more common in the pediatric age group (15.6% vs 4.2%; p=0.04) as well as altered mental status (15.6% vs 0%; p<0.00001). Children were more prone to present with age-adjusted low blood pressure (18.8% vs 4.2%; p=0.01). No other clinically important statistically significant differences were found between the two groups regarding history, signs and symptoms on presentation, laboratory results, treatment, hospitalization course and prognosis.
Conclusions: children have similar clinical course following venomous snake bites when compared to adults.
However their initial presentation more commonly involves altered mental status which represent a valuable sign of envenomation especially in pre verbal children.
