What to do if you are bitten by a cobra

Cobra is a highly venomous snake. If you are accidentally bitten by a cobra in your daily life, you must take emergency measures in time and go to the hospital for rescue immediately. The effectiveness of first aid depends on the rescue time. If the rescue time is exceeded, it will pose a great threat to the patient's life and safety. Let us now understand what to do if you are bitten by a cobra?

Local treatment

Ligation: Ligate the proximal limb above the wound with a tourniquet and relax it for 2-3 minutes every 10-15 minutes. 2. Debridement: Clean the wound with saline, remove any remaining fangs with a fine needle or knife tip after local disinfection, and make a cross or star-shaped incision about 1 cm long on the skin at the wound. Use negative pressure to absorb the toxic tissue fluid, and finally wash the wound with 1:5000 potassium permanganate solution or 2% hydrogen peroxide solution. Keep the limb in a low position after sterile bandage.

Use of antivenom

For anti-snake venom serum allergy test, those who are positive need routine desensitization injection, and at the same time, they need to be given corticosteroids and promethazine. According to the type of snake venom, you can choose:

① Refined pit viper antitoxin 8000U;

② Refined antivenom of Agkistrodon acutus, Bungarus cobra and Cobra 10000U;

③Sea snake antivenom 100ml;

④Indian cobra polyvalent specific antivenom 100ml;

⑤ 40ml of Agkistrodon acutus antitoxin.

All of the above drugs can be diluted with 20-40 ml of normal saline and then injected intravenously or intramuscularly, and usually take 3-4 days.

2. 3-54% of patients experience allergic reactions 10 minutes to 3 hours after injection of antivenom. Mild cases can be treated with intramuscular injection of dexamethasone 10 mg or promethazine 25 mg. In severe cases, immediately inject 0.5 ml of 0.1% epinephrine subcutaneously.

3. Snake medicine is an effective Chinese patent medicine for treating venomous snake bites. It can be taken orally or applied topically, and some are also available in injection form.

In addition, there are some fresh herbs that are also effective for snake bites, such as seven-leafed aconite, star lotus, lobelia, field sedge, and white flower snake tongue grass.

4. Treatment of complications: mainly early prevention and treatment of respiratory failure, shock, heart failure, acute renal failure, disseminated intravascular coagulation, etc. Antimicrobial drugs can be used to prevent and treat concurrent infections. Appropriate treatment measures must be taken for various organ dysfunctions or shock. In addition, central nervous system depressants, muscle relaxants: epinephrine and anticoagulants are prohibited during treatment. 5. Auxiliary treatment: glucocorticoids and anti-infection treatment can be given.