Pulmonary oedema from a widow spider bite. A case report
Visser, L.H.; Khusi, S.N.
South African Medical Journal 75(7): 338-339
1989
ISSN/ISBN: 0256-9574 PMID: 2928885 Document Number: 329820
A 24-year-old black woman was bitten on the thigh by a Latrodectus indistinctus spider and on admission to hospital was weak, anxious, with generalized body pain and a blood pressure of 200/140 mm Hg. On the following day she complained of difficulty in breathing and coughed up frothy sputum; a chest radiograph showed pulmonary oedema. She was given morphine, aminophylline, furosemide and oxygen. Improvement was rapid, although bouts of shivering and sweating persisted for a further 2 days. The authors recommend that young and elderly patients, pregnant women and those with cardiac or respiratory disease, should be given antivenom if bitten by black widow spiders.L.G. Goodwin.