Electric shocks are ineffective in treatment of lethal effects of rattlesnake envenomation in mice.

Department of Physiological Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater 74078.

Electrical shocks, even crudely delivered from 'stun guns' and gasoline engine spark plugs, have been reported to be effective in the treatment of snake bite. We thus applied similar electric shocks to mice artificially injected with reconstituted rattlesnake venom at various LD50 multiples. Those envenomated mice treated with electric shock survived no better than the controls. We thus found no evidence that electric shocks crudely administered had any life saving effect in mice.

PMID: 3438923 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]