ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: The majority of electrical injuries coming to emergency department are low voltage injuries cases. Therefore this study was designed to investigate the clinical characteristics and the treatment outcomes of patients with low voltage electrical injury in one emergency center. METHODS: We, retrospectively, reviewed the medical records of the patients who visited emergency department between July, 2007 and May, 2012. We noted demographics, entrance and exit point of burn injuries, associated injuries and symptoms, electrocardiograms, laboratory results, results of treatment, and so on. RESULTS: There are 103 patients enrolled. Sixty-eight (66%) patients were men with a mean age of 24 years. Pediatric patients (< or =15) were 41 (40.0%). The right upper extremity was the most common entry point, and exit point was unclear in almost cases. There were no lethal complications, except 1 case. The case with lethal complication was 57 year old man who survived from out-of hospital cardiac arrest. He was injured by 220 V electric current during 2 minutes and total arrest time was 20 minutes. He was applied with mild therapeutic hypothermia and later, discharged with favorable neurologic outcome (Cerebral Performance Categories scale 2). Overall rate of discharge, admission and transfer were 67.0%, 28.2% and 4.9%, respectively. Among the discharged patients, no patient re-visited to emergency department with severe complication. After admission, all patients discharged without severe complication. CONCLUSION: There were neither unexpected complications nor delayed complication in our study. Therefore, ED physicians might consider discharge if patients had only minor complications that can manage out-patients follow up at the initial evaluation.
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Arrhythmias, Cardiac , Burns , Demography , Electric Injuries , Electrocardiography , Emergencies , Follow-Up Studies , Heart Arrest , Hypothermia , Medical Records , Outpatients , Retrospective Studies , Upper ExtremityABSTRACT
We report on a case of right thalamic hemorrhage resulting from low-voltage electrical injury caused by contact between a wet hand and an electronic scale. The patient was treated with clopidogrel for control of a previous cerebral infarction. The patient complained of numbness of the left upper extremity. On neurological examination, decreased motor power of her left side, grade IV, was observed. Findings on computerized tomography of the brain revealed a right thalamic hemorrhage. To the best of our knowledge, cerebral hemorrhage resulting from low-voltage electrical injury has not been previously reported in the literature.
Subject(s)
Humans , Brain , Cerebral Hemorrhage , Cerebral Infarction , Electric Injuries , Electronics , Electrons , Hand , Hemorrhage , Hypesthesia , Neurologic Examination , Ticlopidine , Upper ExtremityABSTRACT
Objective To explore the temporal expressions of TIMP-1 and their relationship with injury time during electric injuris of hearts of rats.Methods Immunohistorichemical and image-analysis techniques were employed in 220V-electric injury of hearts during different time.ResultsWeak expression of TIMP-1 are deteced at 0.5h after electric injury,which increased subsequently,and peaked at 24~72h post-injury.Then decreased to pre-injury level at 12d.Conclusion The time-dependent expression of TIMP-1 during electric injury may be used for the estimation of injury time.