Snake bite envenoming

At a glance

• Many suspected snakebites cause no envenoming: 835 of 1,548 patients in ASP-20 (54%) were envenomed. Envenoming is diagnosed on clinical features and serial bloods, not the bite itself.
• Brown snakes are the commonest cause of envenoming and cause most deaths. In the Australian Snakebite Project (ASP-20, 835 envenomed patients) brown snakes caused 41% of envenoming, tiger 17% and red-bellied black 16%, and 17 of the 23 deaths; there were about two deaths a year.
• The commonest syndrome is venom-induced consumption coagulopathy (VICC), present in 73% of envenomed patients.