The dominant (hub) trajectory: Viperidae bite → ischemic stroke → multifocal infarct, often MCA territory → conservative management (no surgery) → survival, frequently with motor sequelae (28.8% of ischemic survivors). This path covers roughly 6 in 10 of the 130 patients (Table 1-2, Almeida et al. 2025).
| Node | Why notable |
|---|---|
| Hemorrhagic + subarachnoid hemorrhage branch | Only 38.5% of cases but carries the largest death risk (OR 7.00 for SAH, OR 2.67 for hemorrhagic vs ischemic stroke type) — the clearest divergence point from the survival-favoring ischemic hub. |
| Thrombocytopenia + sepsis co-occurrence | Sepsis alone raised death odds >6-fold (OR 6.21) — a rare (6.2% of cohort) but decisive branch point. |
| Six autopsy cases | Each shows a distinct fatal mechanism (endocarditis, direct venom detection in brain, multi-organ embolic infarcts) rather than one shared cause — true phase-space edges of the case series rather than noise (Table 6). |
Almeida T, Priante SP, João GP, Nery Oliveira D, Mouta G, Sachett J, et al. Strokes following snakebite envenomations: A systematic review and individual patient data meta-analysis. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2025;19(12):e0013789.
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