ABSTRACT

A researcher, a 40 year-old male, was bitten on his finger accidentally by a 75 cm long, adult male blunt-nosed viper, Macrovipera lebetina lebetina (Linnaeus) that had been collected from northern Cyprus during laboratory work in the Zoology Section, Biology Department of the Ege University Faculty of Science. The clinical signs, physiological and biochemical changes soon after the venomous bite by the blunt-nosed viper as well as the electrophoretic separation of plasma proteins of the patient have been presented here. Serious important symptoms (edema, hypotension shock, hemorrhage, tissue necrosis, and melanoderma) developed and major quantitative differences in the fractions of albumin, globulin and albumin/globulin ratios were detected. On the other hand, the measurements carried out in blood smears and biochemical results indicated the decrease in RBC, MCV, MHV and a decrease in the diameter of red blood cells, as well as an increase in WBC.

Keywords: Venomous snake bite, Macrovipera lebetina, blunt-nosed viper, electrophoretic and biochemical analysis, blood cells