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Photo courtesy of http://home.mira.net/~areadman/plat.htm |
In 1994, a second case report involving the injection of platypus venom into the human hand surfaced when a 29-year-old female naturalist was spurred (Fig. 4) while studying the animal in New South Wales. Two spurs entered the victim’s left hand. The young woman complained of intense pain and swelling of the hand and forearm, which developed over some hours. She was treated at the hospital with elevation, analgesics (pain relievers) and intravenous penicillin and flucloxacillin (antibiotics) for 24 hours. Doctors also administered Flagyl (an antibiotic) in addition to the previous antibiotics for 6 more days. This combined treatment caused a gradual subsistence in pain. However, increased pain and swelling returned to the patient after she stopped the antibiotic treatment. The recurring pain resulted from increased activity of the hand and arm. This pain settled after reinstitution of the above antibiotics, splintage, and elevation. The antibiotics were ceased after 48 hours and all symptoms disappeared after two weeks (Tonkin and Negrine, 1994). |
Figure 4: Another view of the venomous spur of the Platypus
Photo courtesy of http://www.pharmacology.unimelb.edu.au/pharmwww/avruweb/Platypus.htm |
Information obtained from case
histories and anecdotal evidence indicates that the pain develops into
long lasting hyperalgesia (increased neural sensitivity resulting in pain)
that persists for days or even months. Conventional envenomation treatment
proves to be of little use against platypus spurrings since non-steroidal
anti-inflammatory agents fail to relieve pain. Also, no objective evidence
exists to support the use of steroids. Therefore, ice, elevation, demobilization,
and analgesia induced through opiate administration or regional nerve blocks
are the most effective treatments for the adverse effects of platypus envenomation
(Tonkin and Negrine, 1994).
The symptoms associatd with platypus spurrings differ markedly from those associated with snake envenomation, which can result in systemic effects such as paralysis, myolosis, kidney failure, and defibrination coagulopathy (de Plater et al., 2001). Unlike snakes, platypuses spur their enemies in an attempt to deter them without necessarily inflicting permanent harm. Therefore, it is highly unlikely that platypus venom contains the highly toxic compounds found in snake venoms; potent neurotoxins which systemically paralyze an animals or proteases and phospholipases that aid in digestion of prey (Torres et al., 2000). |
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