Clinical Profile and outcome of envenomous snake-bite at tertiary care centre in western Maharashtra

cause of morbidity and mortality in tropical countries.In India, there are 216 species of snakes, of which only four are venomous snakes (cobra, krait, Russell's viper and saw scaled viper).Snake venoms are rich in protein and peptide toxins that have specifi city for a wide range of tissue receptors, making them clinically challenging and scientifi cally fascinating, especially for drug design 2 .Although the full burden of human suffering attributable to snake bite remains obscure, hundreds of thousands of people are known to be envenomed and tens of thousands are killed or maimed by snakes every year.South Asia is the world's most heavily affected region, due to its high population density, widespread agricultural activities, numerous venomous snake species and lack of functional snake bite control programs.Poorly informed rural populations often apply inappropriate fi rst-aid measures and vital time is lost before the victim is transported to a treatment centre, where cost of treatment can constitute an additional hurdle 3 , 4 .