A systematic review of commercial snake antivenoms from seven regions of the world

Snakebite continues to be a challenging matter in clinical medicine, especially in rural areas of developing countries. Effective antivenom can be helpful in rapid recovery from snakebites. This study aimed to collect and systematically analyze the clinical and pharmacological data of the most commercially available antivenom worldwide. Controlled keywords and vocabulary terms were integrated into the search strategy and selection criteria to accurately capture and describe the relevant concepts during the search process. The research strategy emphasized published articles. First, a primary search was undertaken on PubMed, Scopus, Medline, and Google Scholar. Then, related text words included in the titles and abstracts were extracted. We employed all determined and identified keywords (text words, MeSH terms, and non-MeSH terms). The snake antivenoms of Iran, Turkey, Australia, India, Africa, Brazil, and Europe were evaluated in our systematic review. This systematic review has shown that pharmacokinetic factors and the rate of tissue penetration are two crucial subjects that most reports and articles do not mention in these cases. It must be noted that commercial snake antivenoms worldwide must evaluate their efficacy and pharmacokinetics correctly. It is an important issue to be considered while making future decisions toward developing better products in the commercial snake antivenoms market globally.