{"id":172,"date":"2017-07-09T14:57:59","date_gmt":"2017-07-09T21:57:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/?p=172"},"modified":"2017-07-09T14:57:59","modified_gmt":"2017-07-09T21:57:59","slug":"use-pressure-bandage-rattlesnake-bite","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/science-and-education\/use-pressure-bandage-rattlesnake-bite\/","title":{"rendered":"Should you use a pressure bandage for a rattlesnake bite?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>According to authorities on toxinology, no.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A lot of information out there about what to do if you&#8217;re bitten by a rattlesnake is vague on the topic. Most these days will correctly advise not to use a tourniquet, but are less clear when it comes to compression or an attempt to slow the progress of venom throughout the body.<\/p>\n<p>The issue here is complicated. A properly applied compression bandage may slow body-wide symptoms, but the key word here is &#8216;properly&#8217;. Studies have shown that this isn&#8217;t often the case, and trapping venom that destroys tissue in one area can be much more dangerous overall.<\/p>\n<p>Some information out there is also not clear which continent it refers to. Bitten by a Black Mamba? This information isn&#8217;t for you &#8230; a neurotoxic bite that isn&#8217;t actively turning tissue to dead goo has different rules. If you&#8217;re in the United States, you&#8217;re most likely wondering about bites by our species of vipers (rattlesnakes, cottonmouths, copperheads), so don&#8217;t get confused by an article out of Australia or the Middle East.<\/p>\n<p>It may not sit well with many that there really is no first-aid for rattlesnake bites, but really, just focus on getting help.<\/p>\n<p>Please don&#8217;t take my word for it, read the position statement:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/science-and-education\/use-pressure-bandage-rattlesnake-bite\/attachment\/pressure_immobilization_after_north_american_crotalinae_snake_envenomation_-_jmt\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-173\">Pressure_Immobilization_After_North_American_Crotalinae_Snake_Envenomation_-_JMT<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to authorities on toxinology, no. A lot of information out there about what to do if you&#8217;re bitten by a rattlesnake is vague on the topic. Most these days will correctly advise not to use a tourniquet, but are less clear when it comes to compression or an attempt to slow the progress of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":174,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science-and-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176,"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172\/revisions\/176"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rattlesnakesolutions.com\/snakeblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}