Electric shock does not save snakebitten rats.
A team of missionary doctors from Ecuador recently described striking success in the treatment of venomous snakebites with a series of brief, high-voltage, low-current electric shocks applied to the bit site. We designed a randomized, controlled, blinded test of their methods in laboratory rats. Venom of the fer-de-lance, Bothrops atrox, was injected subcutaneously into rats in a series of increasing doses. Half of each dose group then was shocked with a device used by the Ecuadoran group. Envenomated animals developed hemorrhagic ulcers at the injection sites, the size of which was strongly related to venom dose. Electric shock did not influence the development of morbidity or the eventual ulcer size in sublethally envenomated animals, nor did shocks reduce mortality in lethally envenomated animals. We conclude that shocks are without effect on snakebitten rats, and we discuss implications of our findings for the treatment of snakebitten human beings.