ABSTRACT
Purpose@#Electric scooters have recently entered into wide use in South Korea because of their eco-friendliness and convenience. Associated accidents resulting in friction burns are also increasing, due to a lack of recognition of the regulations regarding drivable roads and speed limits. We present the clinical characteristics of friction burns induced by electric scooters.M ethods: We retrospectively evaluated the clinical records of 48 patients who visited our institution after accidents involving electric scooters from January 2018 to February 2022. Demographic data, including age, sex, time of the accident, the type and location of the friction burn, and associated injuries, were reviewed. @*Results@#The age of the patients ranged from 15 to 51 years. The most common injuries were superficial partial-thickness dermal burns, while 14 cases involved deep partial-thickness dermal burns. Multifocal injuries were present in a single patient in most cases. The face was the most commonly affected region, followed by the knees. The average treatment period was 13.0 days, but the follow-up period was longer in patients with facial bone fractures or other comorbidities. @*Conclusion@#Friction burns from electric scooters are increasing, but their clinical presentation and related statistics have not been reported yet. Since most patients were not injured or had only mild epidermal burns in regions with enough clothing, appropriate safety equipment can prevent burns from electric scooters. However, once accidents occur, patients often present with multiple other injuries in the extremities, so proper injury evaluation and management should be emphasized for shorter hospitalization and optimal outcomes.
ABSTRACT
Magnetic Resonance Image (MRI) has been used as a safe, conventional and harmless diagnostic tool. However, thermal injuries have frequently been reported during MRI scanning due to the heat generated by the reaction with the magnetic field. It is recommended that metal-containing monitoring devices such as pulse oximetry and ECG monitoring leads should be removed prior to the start of the MRI scan, but these monitoring devices are inevitably placed in children or patients in the intensive care unit who have low compliance with the scan. Since the interaction between the metal probe or wire loop of pulse oximetry and the magnetic field can result in high thermal conduction, full-thickness burn can occur over the entire body surface during the MRI examination. Several cases of thermal burns from pulse oximetry on the fingers have been reported. However, we present a case of a full-thickness burn arising left earlobe in a 2-month-old child caused by the high conduction heat from pulse oximetry metal probe.