Study of electrocardiographic changes pattern in cases of snake bites in a tertiary care hospital of Mahakaushal area of central India

Background: Snake bite is an occupational hazard for farmers and farm laborers in the Indian subcontinent. Most snake venom can adversely affect multiple organs. Various ECG changes have been reported in a large percentage of cases of snake bite (particularly viper and krait) from time to time. Thus, cardiotoxicity was studied with ECG.Methods: This cross-sectional observational study was carried on 84 patients admitted in Ward/ICU, Department Of Medicine, NSCB Medical College, Jabalpur, India on patients of snake bite reporting from all over Mahakaushal area of central India from March 2017 to August 2018.Results: The commonest manifestation in vasculotoxic snake bite was tachycardia (16.67%). On admission, ECG manifestations were 39.1% in poisonous bites were sinus tachycardia (17.8%), sinus bradycardia (9.5%), nonspecific ST-T changes (5.9%), AV block (3.5%) and sinus arrhythmia (2.3%) of all cases. These ECG changes were 2.3% in nonpoisonous patients. In symptomatic cases mortality was 19% with no mortality was seen in non-poisonous snake bite. There was significant difference between outcome of abnormal ECG group and normal ECG group patients (p <0.005).Conclusions: There is significant impact of snake poisons on cardiovascular profile and ECG can be a useful tool to predict outcome.