Clinico-epidemiology of Hypnale zara (hump-nosed pit viper) envenoming in Sri Lanka.

BACKGROUND

Hump-nosed vipers of the genus Hypnale are the most common cause of venomous snakebites in Sri Lanka. The genus includes three species: Hypnale hypnale, Hypnale zara and Hypnale nepa. Of them, H. hypnale bites are the most common and are the subject of many publications. The epidemiology and clinical features of bites by the other two species have been less investigated.

METHODS

We conducted a prospective observational study of H. zara bites from January 2015 to June 2020 at the Teaching Hospital, Ratnapura, Sri Lanka. Data were collected for 5.5 years in the wet zone of the island, where the principal investigator did assessment of all patients and the data collection.

RESULTS

H. zara envenoming was confirmed through identification of dead or live snake specimens brought with the patients. Of the 480 patients with proven hump-nosed viper bites, H. zara bites accounted for 105 (22%), including dry bites (n=5 [5%]) and envenoming (n=100 [95%]), with gender distribution of 65 (62%) males and a mean age of 43.1 y. Most bites occurred on the lower limbs (n=71 [68%]) in the daytime (n=69 [66%]) in home gardens (n=45 [43%]). A total of 100 (95%) patients had local manifestations, including pain (n=100 [95%]), swelling (n=100 [95%]), bleeding (n=20 [19%]), bruising (n=11 [10%]), lymphadenopathy (n=10 [9%]), necrosis at the bite site (n=9 [9%]) and blistering (n=8 [8%]). Seven (6.7%) patients showed systemic effects, including acute kidney injury (n=2 [2%]), microangiopathic haemolysis (n=2 [2%]), sinus bradycardia (2 [2%]) and one (1%) each had coagulopathy, thrombotic microangiopathy, Kounis syndrome and ischaemic changes on electrocardiography. Eosinophilia was a significant haematological finding (n=26 [25%]) and 16 (15%) had leucocytosis and 15 (14%) had neutrophilia. Ninety six percent of patients (n=101) recovered. Antivenom is not available for hump-nosed viper bites in Sri Lanka and therefore patients were managed conservatively.

CONCLUSIONS

This study shows that H. zara bites mainly cause local envenoming and rarely systemic effects.