Hemorrhagic accidents caused by Lonomia obliqua

Abstract

Hemorrhagic accidents caused by Lonomia obliqua have started to draw attention in Southern Brazil. Clinical and hemorrhagic manifestations caused by caterpillar poisoning. Patients had malaise, headache, nausea and vomiting, bleeding 1-12 hours after contact, such as hematomas, epistaxis, bleeding from recent wounds, gum bleeding, hematuria, and pulmonary hemorrhage. The prognosis will depend on the severity of the accidents. Patients with Grade I and II showed 100% recovery, while patients in Grade III had acute kidney injury (AKI) as the main complication, which occurs in 15-18% of cases. Patients over 50 years of age are the ones who develop AKI. Another risk factor is the time elapsed between the accident and medical care, and most patients with AKI arrived 48 hours after the accident. The lethality of Lonomia envenomation was 3-4 times higher than that recorded for that of snakebite accidents in Brazil, thus reflecting the severity of this poisoning.