title: Surveillance of the clinical use of mamushi (Gloydius blomhoffii) antivenom in tertiary care centers in Japan.
abstract: We report the results of the first large-scale questionnaire surveillance on the clinical use of pit viper antivenom in tertiary care centers in Japan. The questionnaire surveillance was conducted over a period of 3 years (April 2006 to March 2009). Completed questionnaires were received from the tertiary care centers of 108 (49.3%) medical institutions. In that period, 574 cases of pit viper bites, including 2 severe cases, were reported. Antivenom was administered in 44% of the cases of pit viper bites, and of these cases, 2.4% had adverse reactions but no severe symptoms. Approximately half of the clinicians indicated that antivenom was effective. Antivenom was recognized to be safe; however, the remarkable finding was that although the severity of treated cases was unclear, some clinicians reported using cepharanthine as the first choice of treatment for pit viper bites.
authors.affiliation: Division of Critical Care Medicine and Trauma, National Hospital Organization Disaster Medical Center, Tokyo 190-0014, Japan. hitoru＠tdmc.hosp.go.jp
authors.forename: Toru
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hifumi
authors.forename: Akihiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Kazunori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Morokuma
authors.forename: Tomoko
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ogasawara
authors.forename: Nobuaki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kiriu
authors.forename: Eiju
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Hasegawa
authors.forename: Junichi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Inoue
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.forename: Yuichi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Koido
authors.forename: Motohide
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takahashi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000997:Antivenins / Q000008:administration & dosage* / Q000009:adverse effects; D004363:Drug Utilization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D012909:Snake Bites / Q000628:therapy*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D017819:Viperidae
chemical_list: D000997:Antivenins