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Australian and Pacific Snakes

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Critical Care Toxicology

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Abstract

Australia and New Guinea are home to the most toxic of all the world’s snakes [1]. The snake fauna is dominated by venomous species, and most snakes that measure greater than 1 m long are potentially lethal [1–4]. Snakebite is a major health issue in New Guinea, where high rates of snakebites and snakebite deaths have been reported [3]. In Australia, with an equally deadly fauna, snakebite is uncommon, however, and fatalities are uncommon to rare [1, 4, 5]. This difference reflects the urban lifestyle in Australia, the well-developed health care system, and the wide availability of intensive care units and antivenoms.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Toxinology Department, Women’s and Children’s Hospital, North Adelaide, SA, Australia

    Julian White

Authors
  1. Julian White
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julian White .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Colorado School of Medicine, Toxicology Associates, Denver, Colorado, USA

    Jeffrey Brent

  2. Office of New Drugs Drug Evaluation and Research, FDA, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA

    Keith Burkhart

  3. Clinical Toxicology, St Thomas' Hospital, London, United Kingdom

    Paul Dargan

  4. University of Colorado School of Medicine, Toxicology Associates, Denver, Colorado, USA

    Benjamin Hatten

  5. Med & Toxicological Intensive Care Unit, Lariboisière Hospital Paris-Diderot University, Paris, France

    Bruno Megarbane

  6. University of Colorado School of Medicine, Toxicology Associates, Denver, Colorado, USA

    Robert Palmer

Grading System for Levels of Evidence Supporting Recommendations in Critical Care Toxicology, 2nd Edition

Grading System for Levels of Evidence Supporting Recommendations in Critical Care Toxicology, 2nd Edition

  1. I.

    Evidence obtained from at least one properly randomized controlled trial.

  2. II-1.

    Evidence obtained from well-designed controlled trials without randomization.

  3. II-2.

    Evidence obtained from well-designed cohort or case-control analytic studies, preferably from more than one center or research group.

  4. II-3.

    Evidence obtained from multiple time series with or without the intervention. Dramatic results in uncontrolled experiments (such as the results of the introduction of penicillin treatment in the 1940s) could also be regarded as this type of evidence.

  5. III.

    Opinions of respected authorities, based on clinical experience, descriptive studies and case reports, or reports of expert committees.

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White, J. (2016). Australian and Pacific Snakes. In: Brent, J., Burkhart, K., Dargan, P., Hatten, B., Megarbane, B., Palmer, R. (eds) Critical Care Toxicology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20790-2_145-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20790-2_145-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-20790-2

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