Snakebite Mimicking Brain Death: Bedside Clues

Subramanian Senthilkumaran; Namasivayam Balamurugan; Nanjundan Karthikeyan; Ponniah Thirumalaikolundusubramanian

doi:10.5005/jp-journals-10071-23851

Snakebite Mimicking Brain Death: Bedside Clues

Indian J Crit Care Med. 2021 Dec;25(12):1464. doi: 10.5005/jp-journals-10071-23851.

Authors

Subramanian Senthilkumaran¹, Namasivayam Balamurugan², Nanjundan Karthikeyan³, Ponniah Thirumalaikolundusubramanian⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Emergency and Critical Care, Manian Medical Center, Erode, Tamil Nadu, India.
² Department of Neurosciences, SIMS Chellam Hospital, Salem, Tamil Nadu, India.
³ Department of Emergency Medicine, Hamad General Hospital, Doha, Qatar.
⁴ Department of Internal Medicine, Trichy SRM Medical College Hospital and Research Center, Trichy, Tamil Nadu, India.

Abstract

Agarwal et al.¹ have successfully managed three cases of snakebites who manifested features similar to brain death but were not true brain dead. Most likely these cases might have gone on to a status of locked-in syndrome (LIS). LIS is a status in which there is complete paralysis of voluntary muscles in all parts of the body except for those that control eye movements. Moreover, this condition makes an individual completely mute and paralyzed in a conscious patient.² In these individuals, communication may be possible through eye movements.

How to cite this article: Senthilkumaran S, Balamurugan N, Karthikeyan N, Thirumalaikolundusubramanian P. Snakebite Mimicking Brain Death: Bedside Clues. Indian J Crit Care Med 2021; 25(12):1464.

Keywords: Anti-snake venom; ICU management of snake bite; Neurotoxic snake bite.