Do Brown Recluse Spider Bites Really Lead to Amputations?

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The destructive power of brown recluse venom is generally overestimated.
Credit: Rosa Pineda, CC BY-SA 3.0

▼ An Arkansas woman who recently had her leg amputated above the knee claimed that a spider bite was to blame — specifically, a brown recluse (Loxosceles reclusa). But experts told Live Science that the connection between brown recluse bites and amputations is more grounded in myth than in facts.
Kiara Boulton visited a hospital in Memphis, Arkansas, after discovering a painful swelling on her left foot; she said the mark was a spider bite and suspected it came from a brown recluse, WREG Memphis reported. An infection developed, eventually becoming so severe that Boulton's leg required amputation, according to WREG.undefined
Boulton did not discover the bite until after it happened, so she didn't see the spider that was purportedly responsible, and doctors at the hospital declined to confirm if spider venom led to Boulton's amputation.
But can a brown recluse bite really lead to the loss of a limb?
While brown recluse spiders are venomous — and their venom does affect people — their alleged bites are often wrongly identified. And the damage attributed to recluse venom is often caused by bacterial, fungal or viral infections; bites from other insects; or poor circulation from a medical condition, according to the National Capital  Poison Center, a nonprofit poison-control organization.
In the U.S., brown recluses are widespread in Midwestern states — including Arkansas, where Boulton was bitten — and in parts of the South. But reports of brown recluses often surface in places where no brown recluses are found, such as Alaska, California and Canada, arachnologist Richard Vetter, a retired research associate from the Department of Entomology at the University California, Riverside, told Live Science.
Even in areas where recluses are known to live, claims of bites can be greatly exaggerated. A study conducted in 2004 found that reports of brown recluse bitesin South Carolina vastly exceeded the number of known spiders. While 738 bites were described that year, only 44 brown recluse spiders had been identified in the state, suggesting that most of the bites blamed on brown recluses likely had a different source, researchers reported in the Journal of the  American Board of Family Medicine.
So, why would a person jump to the conclusion that they've been bitten by a brown recluse? (▪ ▪ ▪)

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