The study by a team of emergency medicine specialists around the country has found that using Intravenous magnesium sulphate as the standard treatment for stings of various jellyfish, including Irukandji, is not effective.
Irukandji are a small thumbnail size jellyfish found in tropical waters of Australia.
Their stings, normally felt 30 minutes after being stung, cause severe pain, headache, backache, and abdominal pain.
They can also lead to very high blood pressure, heart failure, and there have been a couple of deaths due to bleeding in the brain.
Dr Mark Little says the study shows the use of magnesium for Irukandji syndrome needs to be reconsidered.
"What our study has shown is that for Irukandji syndrome there was no difference when we gave patients magnesium to the length of stay in hospital or the amount of analgesia that they needed," Dr Little said.
"So there was no difference whether we gave them magnesium or we didn't give them magnesium.
"We haven't found any evidence that it works; other people have given anecdotes where it has worked, but we thing further work needs to be done, but our data did not support the use of magnesium in the treatment of Irukandji syndrome.
"What I think the study means is we need to re-think how we manage patients with Irukandki syndrome and we need further research to better identify what is the best treatment for these patients."
The study will be published today in the journal Emergency Medicines Australasia.