Spiders, a sexy diagnosis | General Discussion | Offensive Squid | Forum for the squidlings of author Peter Watts

Spiders, a sexy diagnosis

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2:27 pm
July 15, 2011

sheila

mindsided by Blindsight

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Medical experts grapple with an eight-legged problem

was reading this and a little paragraph made me think of the flesh eating event.

Medicine’s problem with treating spider bites is not just restricted to effective antivenom. As Isbister and Hui Wen Fan of the Butantan Institute in São Paulo, Brazil note in their new Lancet paper, physicians often mistakenly ascribe necrotic skin lesions to the arachnid attackers instead of the true culprits, such as chemical burns, bacterial infections and Lyme disease. “‘Spider bite’ is a sexy diagnosis,” says entomologist and brown recluse spider expert Rick Vetter of the University of California-Riverside. “It’s really kind of amazing how sloppy the medical literature is in this area.”

6:49 am
July 16, 2011

Andrea_A

Germany

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Post edited 12:54 am – July 17, 2011 by Andrea_A

Not all misdiagnoses turn out so well, though. Many people incorrectly

identified with spider bites fail to receive proper treatment for their

true ailment in a timely fashion.

Regardless to the origin of a lesion (spider bite, bedbugs, thorns or even a mosquito bite been scratched open) physicians should be aware of the possibility of either primary or secondary infection. One reason to have an antiseptic (iodine) at hand, though they might impair wound healing.

And another reason for Peter's trouble might have been that he a) went too lately to his physician, b) antibiotics alone are rather ineffective in abscess treatment — due to impaired penetration into the necrotic tissue [1, 2]. Surgical treatment (incision) maybe should have been started earlier. Standard treatment since Hippokrates' era: "If there's pus about, let it out." I guess, Banana would instinctively have tried to open up a similar wound … and to keep it open.

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[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pm…..MC1280140/

[2] http://www.sistemanervoso.com/…..ainage.pdf

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