The Natural History of Human Stingray Injuries

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Stingray Injury; Marine Envenomation

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 300

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Orange, California, United States, 92868
      • University of California, Irvine Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

The targeted study population will include all people at Seal Beach who have been identified by the Seal Beach Lifeguards to have been stung by a stingray over the course of one year who are adults or children whose parent or guardian is present at the time of the injury. Children and pregnant women are included.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 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

Exclusion Criteria:

• 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

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Observational Models: Case-Only
• Time Perspectives: Prospective

Number of groups / cohorts

1

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Enrolled participants; The targeted study population will include all people at Seal Beach who have been identified by the Seal Beach Lifeguards to have been stung by a jellyfish over the course of one year who are adults or children whose parent or guardian is present at the time of the injury. Children and pregnant women are included in the group.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Incidence and duration of particular symptoms, medical evaluations, and treatment	This study is descriptive in nature. The primary outcome of this study is the understanding of the natural history of stingray injuries and their treatment. This will be achieved using strictly descriptive statistics of the incidence and duration of particular symptoms, medical evaluations, and treatment. Means, proportions, and confidence intervals of these statistics will be calculated.	up to 30 days from the date of injury

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of California, Irvine

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: July 1, 2012
• Primary Completion (Actual): September 1, 2016
• Study Completion (Actual): September 1, 2016

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: September 11, 2012
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: September 11, 2012
• First Posted (Estimate): September 14, 2012

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): October 27, 2016
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 25, 2016
• Last Verified: October 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Wounds and Injuries
• Other Study ID Numbers: HS#2011-8620

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: No
• IPD Plan Description: NO IPD will be shared with other researchers