Envenomation by Trachinus draco in the eastern Mediterranean.

Injuries caused by weever fish ( spp) are probably more ubiquitous than reported. Such injuries are extremely painful and require prompt treatment. Only relatively few clinical descriptions of envenomation have been published. We present three patients with envenomation and describe their treatment. Two patients were fishermen injured while handling caught fish and one was a tourist wading into the sea for pleasure. The clinical picture was dominated by extreme pain, which responded partly to the application of warm water, and usually necessitated systemic opiates for adequate control. Follow-up in one of the patients indicated prolonged, slow recovery of the local inflammatory reaction. Prompt analgesia is the mainstay of treatment of this non-lethal but extremely painful envenomation, with the application of hot water being effective, although not always completely.