Bites by the colubrid snake Philodryas olfersii: a clinical and epidemiological study of 43 cases L.A. Ribeiro a, *, G. Puorto b , M. T. Jorge a a Departamento de ClõÂnica Me Âdica, Universidade Federal de Uberla Ãndia, Av. Para  1720, 38400-902 Uberla Ãndia MG, Brazil b Herpetology Laboratory, Instituto Butantan, Sa Äo Paulo, Brazil Received 10 November 1997; accepted 21 July 1998 Abstract Less than 10 cases of bites by Philodryas olfersii (Colubridae) have been reported in the literature. In this study, 43 patients admitted to the Instituto Butantan, SaÄo Paulo, Brazil, with the diagnosis of P. olfersii bite from 1982 to 1990 were reviewed. The 32 male (74.4%) and 11 female (25.6%) patients presented mainly from November to February (65%). The most common clinical features were local pain (37.2%), swelling (34.9%), erythema (18.6%) and ecchymosis (9.3%). The 20 minute whole blood clotting test was performed in 11 patients and in all of them the blood was coagulable. Most of the accidents occurred during the hottest months and during daylight hours. The most common bite site was the hands. Severe envenoming is not frequent in these accidents. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In Brazil, about 20,000 cases of venomous snake bites are reported annually (Resende et al., 1989). Among eight cases of bites by Philodryas olfersii (Fig. 1) that have been reported in the literature (Martins, 1901±1917; Nickerson and Henderson, 1976; Silva and Buononato, 1983±1984; Silveira and Nishioka, 1992; Centro de Informac ° oÄes ToxicoloÂgicas do Rio Grande do Sul, 1996; ArauÂjo and Dos Santos, 1997) and another case related by Irony et al. (unpublished data), the Toxicon 37 (1999) 943±948 0041-0101/99/$ - see front matter # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0041-0101(98)00191-3 PERGAMON * Corresponding author. Fax: +55-34-218-2349.