Snake bites caused by viperid snakes of Atheris genus are extremely rare, envenoming of a bite of related viper Proatheris superciliaris was described only once in the literature. The present case study depicts the envenoming of a 57 years old Czech man, a private herpetologist, who was bitten to his finger. He developed painful local reaction, nausea, hematuria, hypertension, chest and lumbar pain. Coagulopathy and thrombocytopenia subsequently developed as well as acute renal failure, hepatic and lung lesion. Intensive care therapy was purely symptomatic and supportive as no antisera exists. Treatment included haemodialysis, substitution of fresh frozen plasma and platelets. Patient completely recovered during 1 month.

Department of Anaesthesia Resuscitation and Intensive Care General Teaching Hospital 1st Medical Faculty Charles University U nemocnice 2 128 08 Prague 2 Czech Republic