Votsis Stefanos, Karapiperis Dimitrios, Sfikas Georgios, Papanastasiou Christos A, Pehlivanidis Anthimos
Cardiology, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University, Augusta, USA.
Cardiology, 424 Military Hospital, Thessaloniki, GRC.
Cureus. 2025 May 9;17(5):e83770. doi: 10.7759/cureus.83770. eCollection 2025 May.
Latrodectus, or "black widow" spiders, are found worldwide. Black widow envenomations are rare occurrences in Greece. Black widow bites cause unremarkable local lesions that may also include systemic signs and symptoms. Our purpose is to present a rare case of a black widow spider bite. Herein, we report the case of a 66-year-old farmer who presented to our hospital due to abdominal pain and was admitted after he was bitten by a black widow spider. Our patient showed the typical symptoms of latrodectism, that is, rubor and pain at the bite spot, washboard abdomen, rhabdomyolysis, and lower-extremities neuromuscular paralysis. Our case was complicated by acute renal failure, which is not common in such cases. A quite remarkable finding is the detection and capture of the culprit arthropod from the patient's clothes and its identification by expert military veterinarian-arachnologists. The patient was completely cured and discharged after a week-long hospitalization. Black widow spider bites, rare as they may be, especially in Greece, should be considered within the differential diagnosis of unremarkable local lesions, rhabdomyolysis, or acute renal failure.
红斑寇蛛属，即“黑寡妇”蜘蛛，在全球范围内均有发现。黑寡妇蜘蛛咬伤在希腊较为罕见。黑寡妇蜘蛛叮咬会导致局部损伤不明显，但也可能出现全身症状和体征。我们的目的是介绍一例罕见的黑寡妇蜘蛛咬伤病例。在此，我们报告一名66岁农民的病例，他因腹痛前来我院就诊，在被黑寡妇蜘蛛咬伤后入院。我们的患者表现出典型的黑寡妇中毒症状，即咬伤部位发红和疼痛、板状腹、横纹肌溶解以及下肢神经肌肉麻痹。我们的病例并发急性肾衰竭，这在这类病例中并不常见。一个相当显著的发现是从患者衣服上检测并捕获了肇事节肢动物，并由专业的军事兽医-蛛形学家进行了鉴定。患者经过为期一周的住院治疗后完全康复并出院。黑寡妇蜘蛛咬伤，尽管可能罕见，尤其是在希腊，但在局部损伤不明显、横纹肌溶解或急性肾衰竭的鉴别诊断中应予以考虑。
