Wilderness: Scorpion Sting (cont.)

Medical Author:

Charles Patrick Davis, MD, PhD

Dr. Charles "Pat" Davis, MD, PhD, is a board certified Emergency Medicine doctor who currently practices as a consultant and staff member for hospitals. He has a PhD in Microbiology (UT at Austin), and the MD (Univ. Texas Medical Branch, Galveston). He is a Clinical Professor (retired) in the Division of Emergency Medicine, UT Health Science Center at San Antonio, and has been the Chief of Emergency Medicine at UT Medical Branch and at UTHSCSA with over 250 publications.

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Medical Editor:

William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR

Dr. Shiel received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors from the University of Notre Dame. There he was involved in research in radiation biology and received the Huisking Scholarship. After graduating from St. Louis University School of Medicine, he completed his Internal Medicine residency and Rheumatology fellowship at the University of California, Irvine. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology.

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Scorpion Sting Treatment

In most scorpion stings of adults, treatment is simply supportive and can be done at home.

Wash the sting with soap and water and remove all jewelry because swelling of tissue may impede the circulation if it not allowed to expand (for example, a sting on a finger that has a ring surrounding it).
Apply cool compresses, usually 10 minutes on and ten minutes off of the site of the sting.
Acetaminophen (Tylenol) 1-2 tablets every 4 hours may be given to relieve pain (usually not to exceed 3g per 24 hours). Avoid aspirin and ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) because they may contribute to other problems.
Antibiotics are not helpful unless the sting area become secondarily infected.
Do not cut into the wound or apply suction.