What if I get stabbed by a sea urchin?

The appearance of sea urchins has a layer of exquisite hard shell, and the shell is covered with many thorns. The function of thorns is to keep the shell clean, move and dig sand. The columnar processes formed by calcified connective tissue communicate with the poisonous glands in the body. When thorns are punctured into the skin and injected with venom, dermatitis can be caused. Some sea urchins venom is neurotoxin, which can cause systemic symptoms of varying degrees after piercing the skin. Let's take a look at what to do if we are stabbed by sea urchins.

Will it be poisoned if you are stabbed by sea urchins?

There are many kinds of sea urchins, some of which can secrete different sea urchin toxins. There are forked spines and spines that produce toxins in sea urchins. Eating the gonads and ovaries of sea urchins or being stabbed by spines or forked thorns in the reproductive season will cause poisoning. After a person is stabbed by the forked spine of a sea urchin, severe pain and coma will occur, and there will be a record of death. Sea urchin toxin is soluble in water, but its effects are different. some can cause dyspnea, muscle paralysis, convulsions and even death in animals, and some can dissolve red blood cells in animals. some cause the activation of the heart and make the muscles unable to respond to external direct stimulation.

How do you react to being stabbed by a sea urchin?

1. Immediately after being stabbed by sea urchins, you will feel burning and sharp pain. The pain can last for several hours, and the skin will bleed. Soon after, there will be edematous erythema around the wound, occasionally blisters, and the rash will gradually disappear after 1 to 2 weeks. This local skin symptom is rapid type allergy.

2. Round hard nodules appear locally within 1 year after being stabbed by sea urchins, with verrucous surface, hard texture, reddish or cyan color, yellowish brown and keratosis on the surface. some nodules are crater-like, generally painless or mild tenderness, mostly in the hands. This granulomatous nodule may be a foreign body granuloma formed a few months later after sea urchins pierce the skin, leaving the tips of brittle and fragile thorns in the skin.

3. Infiltrative plaque may occur at the same time as granuloma, or alone. Within a few months after the sea urchin was stabbed to the skin, a diffuse dark red infiltrating mass appeared locally, which mostly occurred in the fingers, and later the fingers could appear fusiform deformities, and there were symptoms of localized bone destruction and synovitis of adjacent phalangeal joints, which limited the activity of the fingers. This symptom is not cured for a long time, and a few can be absorbed naturally.

4. After being stabbed by sea urchins, the venom or neurotoxin in sea urchins is injected into the human body, in addition to causing local skin damage, sometimes there may be different degrees of systemic poisoning symptoms, such as dizziness, headache, palpitation, decreased blood pressure, dyspnea, facial paralysis, and even systemic paralysis and death.

Emergency treatment of stabbed sea urchins

1. After being stabbed by sea urchins, we should carefully check whether there are residual spines of sea urchins at the injury site, and take it out by operation if necessary. Then apply anti-inflammatory, anti-itching, pain-relieving potions to prevent secondary infection.

2. If there are symptoms of poisoning after being stabbed by sea urchins, they should be sent to the hospital immediately for treatment.

3. Fishermen or scientific research and explorers should strengthen their personal protection, wear gloves and avoid touching sea urchins with their hands so as not to be stabbed by sea urchins.

4. Tourists who play and play in the reef forest or the hard muddy shallow sea should also make good personal protection to avoid touching or touching sea urchins.