Abstract
BackgroundSnake bite is a major public health problem, especially in the tropical areas of the world, which the World Health Organization aims to eradicate. According to the National Crime Records Bureau in India, where agriculture is the mainstay of employment attributes about 8660 mortalities in a year. Histopathological results are of immense help in establishing the cause of death in those snake bite cases where other circumstantial shreds of evidence are lacking.ResultsAn autopsy-based prospective study was conducted on fatal cases of snake bite reported at a tertiary care center in south India over a period of 2 years. A total of 38 fatal snake bite cases were included in the study. Epidemiological data were collected and analyzed. Histopathological findings of the kidneys, heart, and endocrine glands (pituitary, adrenals, thyroid, and pancreas) were analyzed. The significant findings of the kidneys were distinct corticomedullary demarcation on the gross surface (65.8%) and congestion and acute tubular necrosis (55.3%) on histology. On the other hand, in the set of endocrine glands, adrenals and pituitary showed predominantly hemorrhagic infarction on the histological analysis (18.4% and 52.6%) respectively.ConclusionThe results of the current study enlighten the findings such as distinct corticomedullary demarcation and acute tubular necrosis in the kidneys and hemorrhagic infarction in the endocrine glands in a case of snake bite. It highlights the need for histopathological analysis in the cases of a fatal snake bite when other circumstantial and gross features become indecisive. This can aid immensely in a medico-legal investigation of snake bite cases.
Highlights
Snake bite is a major public health problem, especially in the tropical areas of the world, which the World Health Organization aims to eradicate
An autopsy-based cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted from January 2017 to December 2018 on deceased patients with snake bite in all age groups received at the mortuary, department of forensic medicine and toxicology in a tertiary care center in south India
All the cases brought to the department of forensic medicine as a snake bite for medico-legal autopsy were included in the study
Summary
Snake bite is a major public health problem, especially in the tropical areas of the world, which the World Health Organization aims to eradicate. According to the National Crime Records Bureau in India, where agriculture is the mainstay of employment attributes about 8660 mortalities in a year. Snake bite is considered as a neglected tropical disease that the World Health Organization (WHO) intends to eradicate. It constitutes a major public health problem in tropical areas of the world. In India, being a tropical country where farming is a major source of employment, snake bite has become a common medical emergency and an occupational hazard with the highest snake bite mortality in the world, about 45,000 deaths per annum (Mohapatra et al 2011).
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