Clinical aspects of bites by viper in Spain

Poisonings due to Viperidae bites are quite common in our country. There is a mortality of 3 to 7 cases out of 35 million inhabitants and a variable morbidity which increases in some years. From 1965 to 1980, about 125 cases of bites by Vipers latasti, 80 by V. aspis and 23 by V. seoanei received treatment. Fifty per cent of the cases received small doses of venom and presented proteolytic and coagulant reactions. With stronger doses the reactions were anticoagulant and hemolytic. Two cases affected by bites of V. aspis developed a neurotoxic syndrome with ptosis, dysphagia, dysphasia and paralysis of the bitten extremity. The specific treatment in the severe and moderate cases has been Pasteur and Zagreb antivenom.