Aspectos clínicos e epidemiológicos dos acidentes por arraias nos distritos de Mosqueiro e Outeiro, Belém-Pará-Brasil

Abstract

The Marajó Bay waters become fresh waters during the months when the pluviometric precipitation is high. They also become brackish waters in the other period what makes possible to find stingrays of the Potamotrygonidae family and other seawater species. These stingrays have retrossered and sharp stings that once got into the victims they injure the skin which recovers the glandurar cells with venon, exposing the tissues to the toxin, leading them to clinical manifestations. It has been used an observational and descriptive model of prevalence in order to estimate the clinical and epidemiological aspects of 116 stingrays accidents occurend in the Mosqueiro and Outeiro beaches, around Belem, Para, from July 1999 to August 2001. These accidents happened specially in the Mosqueiro beaches (80,2%) with more frequency in the male sex (63,8%) while in the teenager and adult groups it occurs (38,8% and 50,0%) respectively, and during the month of July (37,9%). In all tides there were victims but with less frequency in the high tide (4,3%). The most accidents ocurred in the bottom of a river with sand (49,1 %) and during the afternoon period (62,1 %). The major part of the stingrays caught in the Mosqueiro beaches belongs to the Potamotrygonidae family. The victims helped in the first hour were 79,3% of the cases being the lowest members the part the most affected in 84,5%specially the feet in 75,0%. All the patients appeared with local clinical manifestations, the pain with 99,1% and the cianosis with 42,2% of the cases. The systemic symptoms were present in 14,6% being the dizziness (6,0%) and the sudoresis (5,2%) the most ones found. The blood pressure above the normal was present in 6,0% and the taquicardiac was in 9,5%. The debridment has been the cirurgic behaviour the most used (94,5). Only 18,1% came back to a revaluation whose 33,4% of them evolved to necrosis 28,6% with local infection. There has been no statistic signifecance in the correlationamong the clinical evolution, the treatments used and the time between the accidents and the beginning of the medical service. We concluded that the stingray accidents are an important health injury for the population who despite the local complications and difficulties, the victims don't display a serious healthy state. The brackish waters period seems to have a great influence to increase the number of these accidents.