Clinical Symptoms
Clinically, a bite of Latrodectus rarely can cause serious health problems. In severe cases, a bite can cause latrodectism, a disease consisting of raised blood pressure, generalized muscle pain, abdominal cramps, extreme sweating and tachycardia. The average duration of the syndrome in humans is 3 to 6 days. Untreated patients have exhibited clinical signs for a period of 7 days, but weakness and some muscle pain and malaise may persist for weeks. About 75% of the intoxicated patients experience local effects and do not develop systemic envenomation. A pinprick or burning sensation can be felt when bitten by widow spiders. Local pain worsens over time, which may combine with sweating and piloerection. The pain may spread to local lymph nodes or become generalized.
In 25% of the bite incidents, alongside the generic effects, patients experience muscle cramps, spasms and even patchy paralysis. Associated features include nausea, vomiting, headache, fever, malaise, hypertension and tremor.
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