Latrodectism in Italy: First report of successful treatment of L. tredecimguttatus envenomation using L. mactans antivenom from North America.

CONCLUSIONS: The clinical presentation of a patient suffering from latrodectism places the clinician in front of a challenging differential diagnosis. Following the suspicion, the first-line doctor is invited to discuss the case with a toxicologist, in order to confirm or exclude the diagnosis and implement all therapeutic measures. In our clinical case, the absence of organic lesions, laboratory tests not suggestive for other causes, and the presence of typical clinical feature suggested the diagnosis of L tredecimguttatus poisoning. This hypothesis was then supported by the close temporal relation between antivenom administration and symptoms improvement. With this case, we report the first use of L mactans antivenom from North America to treat L. tredecimguttatus poisoning and we confirm its effectiveness in counteracting latrodectism caused by this spider. PMID: 32179049 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Toxicon - Category: Toxicology Authors: Tags: Toxicon Source Type: research