Juan Martínez, the resident doctor who has treated a 19 year old who suffered a serious spider bite in Ibiza at the beginning of June, explains that the treatments that were applied to the patient were aimed at “improving blood circulation to avoid superinfection”, i.e. that it would not spread to the rest of the body. According to Martínez, this is the fifth similar case reported in Spain thanks to the records in the scientific literature, so there is no “specific protocol to follow” due to the “anecdotal nature of these cases”.
The patient, who first visited a private clinic in Sant Antoni, was admitted to the emergency department of the Hospital Can Misses 24 hours after the bite, which occurred at dusk while watching a sunset with some friends. Despite not having gone directly to the hospital, the doctor explains that if he had been admitted earlier “it would not have made a difference”, as the clinic in Sant Antoni applied similar treatments to those he received at the hospital, with the aim of stopping the infection. “He was given antibiotics and corticoids, but when they saw that it was getting worse, they decided to refer him to hospital,” the doctor explains.
Emergency area of the Hospital Can Misses. VICENT MARÍ.
‘Loxosceles reclusa’ (Mediterranean recluse spider)
Once in A&E, and with his hand increasingly swollen, the suspected diagnosis covered a very broad spectrum because the young man could not specify the type of the spider that had bitten him. “Based on the clinical report that was made, we investigated the type of spider that could have caused the bite and everything pointed to the ‘Loxosceles reclusa‘ (Mediterranean recluse spider),” he says. “It is a spider that is found in rocky, damp places, such as caves, so it coincided with the description of the place where the young man was, and I found a study that confirmed its existence in Ibiza,” he points out.
During the two weeks that the young man was hospitalized, a case of “necrosis developed in the index and middle fingers, which also affected part of the index finger”. According to Martínez, the case fluctuated and initially improved, but then stabilized. “The goal was to save the rest of the hand and stop the necrosis,” he recalls.
As the treatment was going to be prolonged, the doctors suggested to the young man that he return home to continue treatment in “a familiar environment”. “We told him that the best thing would be for him to return home with his family so that he would feel supported psychologically,” explains Martínez.
Currently, the young man continues with the treatment in Wales waiting for the rest of the hand to recover in order to undergo an operation in which two fingers and part of another will be amputated. According to the doctor, it was clear from the beginning that it was “unlikely” to recover the tissue affected by the necrosis, so the aim at all times was “to prevent it from spreading to the rest of the body”.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.