Envenomation by the red-tailed coral snake (Micrurus mipartitus) in Colombia

 

Carlos A. Cañas¹, Fernando Castro-Herrera², Santiago Castaño-Valencia² 

 

1 Department of Internal Medicine, Fundación Valle del Lili, Universidad Icesi, Cali, Colombia.

2 Department of Physiological Sciences, School of Health Sciences, Universidad del Valle, Cali, Colombia.

 

ABSTRACT

Background

Although the red-tailed coral snake (Micrurus mipartitus) is widely distributed in Colombia and its venom is highly neurotoxic and life threatening, envenomation by this species is rare. Therefore, this report may shed some light on the clinical presentation of M. mipartitus bites.

 

Case presentations

Herein, we describe two cases of patients bitten by red-tailed coral snakes, illustrating the clinical presentation of the victims, the outcomes and treatment provided.

 

Conclusion

Envenomation caused by M. mipartitus provokes predicable neurotoxicity, and its treatment should be based on respiratory support and use of specific antivenom.

 

Key words: Red-tailed coral snake; Micrurus mipartitus; snake envenomation; Colombia.

 

Funding

This work was supported by Fundación Valle del Lili.

 

Received: September 21, 2016.

Revised: February 4, 2017.

Accepted: February 14, 2017.

 

Correspondence: cacd12@hotmail.com

Authors’ contributions

CAC wrote the first draft of the manuscript and contributed to the medical observations. FCH and SCV contributed to writing the manuscript and to the biological analysis related to the snakes. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

 

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

 

Consent for publication

Written informed consent was obtained from the patients for publication of this case report and any accompanying images.

 

Ethics approval and consent to participate

This report was approved by ethic committee of Fundación Valle del Lili for its publication.