Effective Treatments for Jellyfish Stings

Study Summary

The purpose of the study is to attempt to determine which treatment from commonly used treatments is the best at reducing pain and redness of the skin after a sting from a Portuguese Man of War, Chrysaora chinensis, or Chrysaora fuscescens. Jellyfish stings are a common occurrence in many parts of the world causing significant morbidity to persons stung by jellyfish while participating in marine activities whether commercial or recreational. Much debate and confusion exist both in the medical literature and the common recommendations regarding how to treat persons stung by jellyfish. Specifically concerning what topical treatments are most efficacious at decreasing envenomation by nematocyst on skin, preventing the firing of un-discharged nematocyst, decreasing inflammation and pain resulting from envenomation by nematocyst. Antidotal recommendations and past studies have referenced numerous different topical treatments for jellyfish stings including but not limited to vinegar, urine, alcohol, distilled spirits, ammonia, bleach, acetone, bicarbonate slurry, lidocaine, meat tenderizer, Coca Cola, old wine, salt water, cold packs, hot water, and commercial products such as Stingose and Stingaid. Conflicting data exists regarding what works and what does not for nematocysts discharge, skin erythema, and pain reaction. The investigators would like to investigate which treatment is best out of some of the more commonly studied treatments for reducing pain and erythema. The investigators would like to complete a research study to try to bring some reasonable evidence to the field treatment of jellyfish stings, namely, the decontamination process (e.g., what can you put on a jellyfish sting that will be helpful, based on real data?). The questions asked are as follows: * What topical treatments for jellyfish stings actually decrease the amount of inflammation seen on a macroscopic level on the skin of humans? * What topical treatments for jellyfish stings actually dec

Primary Outcome

Pain is measured on a scale of 1-10 with 0 being no pain and 10 being worse pain ever felt. Baseline pain will be measured immediately after being stung for 2 minutes without any treatment. Subsequent pain felt at every 2 minutes for 30 minutes, at 1 hour post sting, and at 24 hours post sting will be based on changes from the original baseline pain. Mean change is defined as the mean change in pain from all time points measured from each participant and then averaged for each group. The control

Conditions Studied

Interventions

• OTHER Acetic Acid (5%)
• OTHER Sodium Bicarbonate Slurry (50%)
• OTHER Papain Slurry (70%)
• OTHER Ammonia (10%)
• DRUG Lidocaine (4%)

Study Locations (1)