Stuber, Marielle; Nentwig, Wolfgang (2016). How informative are case studies of spider bites in the medical literature? Toxicon, 114, pp. 40-44. Elsevier 10.1016/j.toxicon.2016.02.023
![[img]](https://boris.unibe.ch/style/images/fileicons/text.png) |
Text
Stuber & Nentwig case studies Toxicon 2016.pdf - Published Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (178kB) |
We analyzed the reliability and information content of 134 medical case studies on spider bites, published in 91 journal articles. Overall, we found that only 22% of these studies fulfilled the criteria for a verified spider bite. This means that the majority of such case studies cannot be attributed to a given spider species and usually not even to a spider. Their scientific value is negligible, moreover, such publications are even dangerous because they suggest incorrect conclusions. Secondly, we found that such case studies usually do not follow an obvious structure and many details on the development of symptoms, therapy and healing process are widely lacking. So even for verified spider bites, the
comparability of case studies is limited. We discuss the obvious failure of a reviewing process for case studies and give recommendations how to increase the currently low information content of medical case studies on spider bites.
Item Type: |
Journal Article (Original Article) |
|---|---|
Division/Institute: |
08 Faculty of Science > Department of Biology > Institute of Ecology and Evolution (IEE) |
UniBE Contributor: |
Stuber, Marielle, Nentwig, Wolfgang |
Subjects: |
500 Science > 570 Life sciences; biology |
ISSN: |
0041-0101 |
Publisher: |
Elsevier |
Language: |
English |
Submitter: |
Alexander Strauss |
Date Deposited: |
17 Nov 2016 08:46 |
Last Modified: |
05 Dec 2022 14:59 |
Publisher DOI: |
10.1016/j.toxicon.2016.02.023 |
PubMed ID: |
26923161 |
BORIS DOI: |
10.7892/boris.89934 |
URI: |
https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/89934 |
Actions (login required)
 |
Edit item |