OBJECTIVE:

to describe the safety profile of the heterologous serum produced by the Butantan Institute (BI) of São Paulo-SP, Brazil.

METHODS:

a descriptive study of adverse events (AEs) post-exposure to serum produced by the BI, encoded in the medical terminology of the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA), and spontaneously reported to BI from 2012 to 2015.

RESULTS:

52 individuals reported AEs, mainly related to Bothrops antivenom (n=11), diphtheria antitoxin (n=9) and unspecified snakebite serum (n=9); a mean of 3.2 AEs per individual was observed; among the total of 173 AEs, 63.0% were expected considering that they were described in the package insert; most of them were classified as skin and subcutaneous tissue disorders (30.6%); there were six deaths temporally related to the use of serum, but this association was discarded.

CONCLUSION:

in the studied period, the serum produced by the BI had no changes in their safety profiles, considering that the AEs were expected, according to the information previously described in the package insert.

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