The Brown Recluse

BROWN RECLUSE SPIDER

The brown recluse, or Loxosceles reclusa for any of you with a Latin fetish, can cause some really nasty problems. There are 13 species in the US. The brown recluse is nocturnal, and likes warm dark areas. The key to identifying this spider is the dark violin shape on dorsal cephalothorax (this is the back of the center section of the spider). The spider is Tan to dark brown, about 9-mm length, and has 6 eyes in 3 pairs instead of 8 as many spider species do. I read this information from a really thick book with only a few pictures and really small print, so I'm sure it is reliable. I 'm going to take their word for that stuff about the eyes since I am not going to get close enough to this spider to count them.

It should be noted that often the brown recluse bites without injecting any venom into the patient. Since this is often the case, many brown recluse bites are insignificant. As Paramedics however, we can not afford to assume that there will be no untoward effects if our patient has been bitten even though bites without envenomation often occur. It is common for patients who have been bitten to feel fine and be without complaint for several hours after the event. It is also common for these patients to want to refuse transport. As with any poisoning (and after all, that is what we are talking about here), no effort should be spared to convince these patients to accept care and transport to a medical facility until the extent of the envenomation can be determined. Although it may take several hours, once systemic signs and symptoms of envenomation begin, the patient can deteriorate rapidly. If this is going to happen, it's best if it happens in a hospital rather than at the patients home.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. We'll discuss systemic reactions later on.