Risk assessment for red-back spider bite
The diagnosis of red-back spider bite is based on the circumstances of the bite and clinical features. Clinical features of red-back spider envenoming are given in Clinical features of red-back spider envenoming.
The patient may not feel the bite itself, but pain increases over an hour and may radiate up the limb or to the trunk. This is followed by the development of regional and systemic effects. Young children and infants, in particular, may present with undifferentiated pain, irritation and distress. The duration of effects ranges from hours up to 5 days.
|
Features of envenoming |
Effects |
|---|---|
|
pain |
local pain at the bite site, increasing over minutes to hours, which can last for days radiating pain from the bite site to the draining lymph nodes and proximal limb abdominal, chest or back pain |
|
local and regional features |
local sweating regional sweating with unusual distribution (eg bilaterally below the knees) piloerection, erythema, paraesthesia, patchy paralysis, muscle spasms |
|
nonspecific systemic and other features |
malaise, lethargy, nausea, vomiting, hypertension, irritability (especially in children), agitation (especially in children), fever, priapism |