Background: Electricity has become an integral part of our lives in todays era of technology . Electrical burn injuries comprise a low fraction of the entire burn admissions but they are potentially a mutilating type. The aim of this study is to know the demographic pattern of electric burn cases in our region, along with the morbidity and management of electric burn injuries in a tertiary centre of central india.
Methods: This was a retrospective study conducted by reviewing the medical records of all burn admissions from July 2017 to June 2019 and data was analysed for demographic characteristics and outcomes and patterns of electric burn injury
Results: Out of 26 total electric burn cases, maximum cases (65.38%) were adult above 20 years of age. Having male to female ratio of 3.5:1 , most of them belonged to rural place. (84.61%) Of all the cases studied,maximum were of High Voltage (>1000 V) Injury 61.53%, encountered mostly in outdoors and at work places.Hand (50%) was the commonest part to be affected. 61.53% of all affected individuals had to undergo a surgical intervention of which 50% underwent debridement, with a mean hospital stay of 27.08+/-12.09 days for high voltage injuries
Conclusions: Electrical injuries are generally preventable. This epidemiological study on the patients of electric burn suggests that most of the human and economic losses caused by the accidents leading to electric burn injuries were young males, hailing from rural areas and suffered high voltage burns, which could have been prevented by implementation of safety measures at work place. Hence general education regarding safety measures while using the electricity should be given in primary schools itself. High voltage electrical transmission cables should be placed underground.
Key words: Electric Burn, High voltage injury, Prevention
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