Pre-hospital care and its association with clinical outcome of snakebite victims presenting at a tertiary care referral hospital in South India.
Tropical Doctor · 2020-10-27 · Observational study
Abstract
Most snakebite victims in low- and middle-income countries continue to seek many forms of first aid therapy before reaching hospital, the commonest being the application of a tourniquet. Our study looked at a prospective cohort of 382 such patients to ascertain the association of pre-hospital care with clinical outcome, and found that 60% developed complications as compared to 36% who had no pre-hospital care (p < 0.001), with 10 fatalities in the former compared to only one in the latter. Pre-hospital care remains very common and definitely increases morbidity and mortality.
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Tags
Low- and middle-income settings · Mortality & survival · Tourniquet
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