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Approximately 9000 patients are treated for rattlesnake envenomations in the U.S. each year. Treatment typically involves the use of antivenom; antibiotics are not usually indicated. Medical toxicologists, whose fellowship training includes this topic, are being used by some centers for the inpatient treatment of patients with this and other toxicological emergencies. In a before-and-after study, researchers investigated whether implementation of an inpatient toxicology service affected hospital length of stay, amount of antivenom used, and readmission for patients with rattlesnake bites. The study was performed at six hospitals in California that established medical toxicology services between 2011 and 2015.
A total of 300 patients with rat…