Raising Awareness on the Clinical and Forensic Aspects of Jellyfish Stings: A Worldwide Increasing Threat

Abstract

Jellyfish are ubiquitous animals registering a high and increasing number of contacts with humans in coastal areas. These encounters result in a multitude of symptoms, ranging from mild erythema to death. This work aims to review the state-of-the-art regarding pathophysiology, diagnosis, treatment, and relevant clinical and forensic aspects of jellyfish stings. There are three major classes of jellyfish, causing various clinical scenarios. Most envenomations result in an erythematous lesion with morphological characteristics that may help identify the class of jellyfish responsible. In rare cases, the sting may result in delayed, persistent, or systemic symptoms. Lethal encounters have been described, but most of those cases happened in the Indo-Pacific region, where cubozoans, the deadliest jellyfish class, can be found. The diagnosis is mostly clinical but can be aided by dermoscopy, skin scrapings/sticky tape, confocal reflectance microscopy, immunological essays, among others. Treatment is currently based on preventing further envenomation, inactivating the venom, and alleviating local and systemic symptoms. However, the strategy used to achieve these effects remains under debate. Only one antivenom is currently used and covers merely one species (Chironex fleckeri). Other antivenoms have been produced experimentally but were not tested on human envenomation settings. The increased number of cases, especially due to climate changes, justifies further research in the study of clinical aspects of jellyfish envenoming.