Is It a Spider Bite? Probably Not

-Researchers Say Spider Bites Are Overdiagnosed, yet Underappreciated

By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD

July 13, 2011 -- Spider bites aren't as common as most people and most doctors think, according to a new analysis.

At the same time, researchers also say poor understanding of truly dangerous spider bites delays treatment when a person really has been bitten by a dangerous spider.
For example, the bite of the brown recluse spider can cause death of a sizeable area of skin (skin necrosis) resulting in a deep, scarring ulcer. Yet even in areas infested with brown recluse spiders, true bites are uncommon.
The analysis is published in the July 14 online issue of The Lancet.
"The treatment of patients with suspected spider bite is not straightforward because of overdiagnosis of skin necrosis as being attributable to spider bites while, at the same time, serious [spider bites] ... are not being recognized and treatment is delayed," write Geoffrey Isbister, MD, of the University of Newcastle, Australia, and Hui Wen Fan, PhD, of Butantan Institute, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Isbister and Fan note that there are more than 41,000 known species of spider, but that very few have bites harmful to humans.
The names of the two U.S. spiders with harmful bites are well known: the black widow and the brown recluse. The two spiders have different poisons:

• The bite of the black widow may not be very painful at first. Pain onset usually is gradual and usually takes the form of back and belly pain that can last for hours or even days.
• The bite of the brown recluse (and 12 other recluse spiders in North America) can be mild and just cause a mild, itchy bump. But in severe cases, the bite may be painless at first, but over the next two to eight hours develop a sharp, deep pain followed by a burning feeling. The area around the bite reddens and spreads into a deep ulcer that can be as wide as 16 inches across and can take six to eight weeks to heal.

What about other spiders?
"Many additional spiders ... have been implicated," wrote Mayo Clinic dermatologist David L. Swanson, MD, and University of California spider expert Richard S. Vetter, MS, in a 2006 report. "Unfortunately, most of the implicated spiders have been falsely elevated to a status of medical significance through circumstantial implication and repetitive citation in the medical literature."