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Electrical injury is damage caused by manmade electrical current passing through the body. Symptoms may include skin burns, damage to internal organs and other soft tissues, cardiac arrhythmias, and respiratory arrest. Diagnosis is by clinical criteria and selective laboratory testing. Treatment is supportive, with aggressive care for severe injuries.

Although accidental electrical injuries encountered in the home (eg, touching an electrical outlet or getting shocked by a small appliance) rarely result in significant injury or sequelae, accidental exposure to high voltage causes about 400 deaths annually in the US.

Pathophysiology

Traditional teaching is that the severity of electrical injury depends on Kouwenhoven's 6 factors: type of current (direct [DC] or alternating [AC]), voltage and amperage (both are measures of current strength), duration of exposure (longer exposure increases injury severity), body resistance, and pathway of current (which determines the specific tissue damaged). However, electrical field strength, a newer concept, seems to predict injury severity more accurately.

Kouwenhoven's factors: AC changes direction frequently; it is the current usually supplied by household electrical outlets in the US and Europe. DC flows in the same direction constantly; it is the current supplied by batteries. Defibrillators and cardioverters usually deliver DC current. How AC affects the body depends largely on frequency. Low-frequency (50- to 60-Hz) AC is used in US (60 Hz) and European (50 Hz) households; it can be more dangerous than high-frequency AC and is 3 to 5 times more dangerous than DC of the same voltage and amperage. Low-frequency AC produces extended muscle contraction (tetany), which may freeze the hand to the current's source, prolonging exposure. DC is most likely to cause a single convulsive contraction, which often forces the victim away from the current's source.

Usually, for both AC and DC, the higher the voltage (V) and amperage, the greater the ensuing electrical injury (for the same duration of exposure). Household current in the US is 110 V (standard electrical outlet) to 220 V (large appliance, such as a dryer). High-voltage (> 500 V) currents tend to cause deep burns, and low-voltage (110 to 220 V) currents tend to cause muscle tetany and freezing to the current's source. The threshold for perceiving DC current entering the hand is about 5 to 10 milliamperes (mA); for AC at 60 Hz, the threshold is about 1 to 10 mA. The maximum amperage that can cause flexors of the arm to contract but that allows release of the hand from the current's source is called the let-go current. Let-go current varies with weight and muscle mass. For an average 70-kg man, let-go current is about 75 mA for DC and about 15 mA for AC.

Low-voltage 60-Hz AC traveling through the chest for a fraction of a second can cause ventricular fibrillation at amperage as low as 60 to 100 mA; for DC, about 300 to 500 mA are required. If current has a direct pathway to the heart (eg, via a cardiac catheter or pacemaker electrodes), < 1 mA (AC or DC) can cause ventricular fibrillation.

Amount of dissipated heat energy equals amperage² × resistance × time; thus, for any given current and duration, tissue with the highest resistance tends to suffer the most damage. Body resistance (measured in ohms/cm²) is provided primarily by the skin. Skin thickness and dryness increase resistance; dry, well-keratinized, intact skin averages 20,000 to 30,000 ohms/cm². For a thickly calloused palm or sole, resistance may be 2 to 3 million ohms/cm²; for moist, thin skin, resistance is about 500 ohms/cm². Resistance for punctured skin (eg, cut, abrasion, needle puncture) or moist mucous membranes (eg, mouth, rectum, vagina) may be as low as 200 to 300 ohms/cm². If skin resistance is high, much electrical energy may be dissipated at the skin, resulting in large skin burns at entry and exit points but less internal damage. If skin resistance is low, skin burns are less extensive or absent, but more electrical energy may be dissipated in internal organs. Thus, the absence of external burns does not predict the absence of electrical injury, and the severity of external burns does not predict the severity of electrical injury.

Damage to internal tissues depends also on their resistance and additionally on current density (current per unit area; energy is concentrated when the same current flows through a smaller area). For example, as electrical energy flows in an arm (primarily through lower-resistance tissues, eg, muscle, vessels, nerves), current density increases at joints because a significant proportion of the joint's cross-sectional area consists of higher-resistance tissues (eg, bone, tendon), which decreases the area of lower-resistance tissue; thus, damage to the lower-resistance tissues tends to be most severe at joints.

The current's pathway through the body determines which structures are injured. Because AC current continually reverses direction, the commonly used terms “entry” and “exit” are inappropriate; “source” and “ground” are most precise. The hand is the most common source point, followed by the head. The foot is the most common ground point. Current traveling between arm and arm or between arm and foot is likely to traverse the heart, possibly causing arrhythmia. This current tends to be more dangerous than current traveling from one foot to the other. Current to the head may damage the CNS.

Electrical field strength: Electrical field strength determines the degree of tissue injury. For instance, 20,000 volts (20 kV) applied to a 6-ft (about 2 m) man from his head to ground result in a field strength of about 10 kV/m. Similarly, 110 volts, if applied only to 1 cm (eg, across a toddler's lip), result in a similar field strength of 11 kV/m; this is why such a “low-voltage” injury can cause the same severity of tissue injury as some high-voltage injuries applied to a larger area. Conversely, when considering voltage rather than electrical field strength, minor or trivial electrical injuries may be classified as high voltage. For example, the shock received from shuffling across a carpet in the winter involves thousands of volts.

Pathology: Application of low electrical field strength produces an immediate, unpleasant feeling (being “shocked”) but seldom results in serious or permanent injury. Application of high electrical field strength may cause thermal or electrochemical damage to internal tissues. Damage may include hemolysis, protein coagulation, coagulation necrosis of muscle and other tissues, vascular thrombosis, dehydration, and muscle and tendon avulsion. High electrical field strength injuries may result in massive edema, which, as veins coagulate and muscles swell, results in compartment syndromes. Massive edema may also cause hypovolemia and hypotension. Muscle destruction may result in rhabdomyolysis and myoglobinuria. Myoglobinuria, hypovolemia, and hypotension increase risk of acute renal failure. Electrolyte disturbances can also occur. The consequences of organ dysfunction do not always correlate with the amount of tissue destroyed (eg, ventricular fibrillation may occur with relatively little tissue destruction).

Symptoms and Signs

Burns may be sharply demarcated on the skin even when current penetrates irregularly into deeper tissues. Severe involuntary muscular contractions, seizures, ventricular fibrillation, or respiratory arrest due to CNS damage or muscle paralysis may occur. Brain or nerve damage may result in various neurologic deficits. Cardiac arrest may occur without burns in bathtub accidents (when a wet [grounded] person contacts a 110-V circuit—eg, from a hairdryer or radio).

Toddlers who bite or suck on extension cords can burn their mouth and lips. Such burns may cause cosmetic deformities and impair growth of the teeth, mandible, and maxilla. Labial artery hemorrhage, which results when the eschar separates 5 to 10 days after injury, occurs in up to 10% of these toddlers.

An electrical shock can cause powerful muscle contractions or falls (eg, from a ladder or roof), resulting in dislocations (electrical shock is one of the few causes of posterior shoulder dislocation), vertebral or other fractures, injuries to internal organs, and loss of consciousness.

Diagnosis and Treatment

The first priority is to break contact between victim and current source. Shutting off the current is best (eg, by throwing a circuit breaker or switch, by disconnecting the device from its electrical outlet). If the current cannot be shut off rapidly, the victim is removed from contact with the current. If the current is low voltage, rescuers should first well-insulate themselves, then knock the victim free or use an insulating material (eg, cloth, dry wood, rubber, leather belt) to pull the victim free. Caution: If power lines could be high voltage, no attempts to disengage the victim should be made until the power is shut off. High- and low-voltage power lines are not always easily differentiated, particularly outdoors.

The victim, once free, is assessed for cardiac and respiratory arrest (see Respiratory and Cardiac Arrest). Next, shock, which may result from trauma or massive burns, is treated (see Shock and Fluid Resuscitation: Prognosis and Treatment). After initial resuscitation, patients are examined from head to toe.

Asymptomatic patients who are not pregnant, have no known heart disorders, and who have had only brief exposure to household current usually have no significant internal or external injuries. They can be discharged.

For other patients, ECG, CBC, measurement of cardiac enzymes, and urinalysis (especially to check for myoglobin) should be considered. Cardiac monitoring for 6 to 12 h is indicated for patients with arrhythmias, chest pain, any suggestion of cardiac damage, and possibly for patients who are pregnant or have known heart disorders. Patients with impaired consciousness may require CT or MRI.

The pain of an electrical burn is treated by the judicious titration of IV opioids. For myoglobinuria, alkalinizing the urine and maintaining adequate urine output (about 100 mL/h in adults and 1.5 mL/kg/h in children) decreases the risk of renal failure. Standard burn fluid resuscitation formulas, which are based on the extent of skin burns, underestimate the fluid requirement in electrical burns; thus, such formulas are not used. Surgical debridement of large amounts of muscle tissue may help to decrease myoglobinuric renal failure.

Appropriate tetanus prophylaxis and topical burn wound care are required (see Burns: Treatment). All patients with significant electrical burns should be referred to a specialized burn unit. Children with lip burns should be referred to a pedodontist or oral surgeon familiar with such injuries.

Prevention

Electrical devices that touch or may be touched by the body should be properly insulted, grounded, and incorporated into circuits containing protective circuit-breaking equipment. Ground-fault circuit breakers, which trip when as little as 5 mA of current leaks to ground, are effective and readily available.

Last full review/revision November 2005

Content last modified November 2005