The Natural History of Human Stingray Injuries

Completed

Conditions studied: Stingray Injury, Marine Envenomation

In brief

Stingray injuries can be a hazard shared by many types of beachgoers. Stingrays often lie in the sand and when stepped on by the unsuspecting beachgoer their tail snaps foreword, resulting in a barbed stinger injecting venom into the victim. Little exists in the current literature on the natural history of stingray injuries. Most of the existing literature looks at the incidence of stings, and to a certain extent the demographic of people who seek care. To our knowledge no study has attempted to collect a more inclusive population of those people who are stung and follow them prospectively to determine the incidence of medical intervention, infection, etc. This study aims to describe and quantify the natural history of stingray injuries and to better understand their time course and medical requirements. The study setting will be Seal Beach, which reports some of the greatest number of annual stingray injuries for any single beach on the pacific coast. Participants will be identified by the Seal Beach lifeguards who are believed to treat the majority of stingray injuries suffered at the beach. Eligible persons will be consented for participation over the phone by research personnel. If enrolled in the study they will receive a phone call by research personnel one week and one month after the injury that will collect information about the symptoms they have experienced and the medical interventions they have received, if any. This study is strictly observational in nature and will not involve any interventions on the part of study personnel or alter the manner in which or types of medical assessments or treatments.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT01685749

Run by

University of California, Irvine

People needed

300

Starts

2012-07-01

Expected to finish

2016-09-01

Last updated by the study team

2016-10-27

Who can join

Age: any. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• People at Seal Beach, California
• People identified by Life guard personnel as being stung by a stingray at Seal Beach
• Adults or
• Children whose parent or guardian are present at the time of the injury

You may not qualify if…

• People who have previously been enrolled in the study
• People who the lifeguard believes were stung or bit by a marine organism other than a stingray or a terrestrial organism

Where it is running

• University of California, Irvine Medical Center — Orange, California, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

Trial information comes from ClinicalTrials.gov and is refreshed daily. TrialsForMe does not provide medical care and does not run the studies it lists.