Citation

Grossman AR, Tempereau CE, Brones MF, Kulber HS, Pembrook LJ. J. Burn Care Rehabil. 1993; 14(2 Pt 1): 169-175.

Affiliation

Burn Center of Southern California, Sherman Oaks Hospital, Los Angeles.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

8501105

Abstract

Major electrical injury causes widespread tissue destruction. Slow and incomplete functional recovery after electrocution-type injury has led clinicians to suspect residual brain damage. One hundred and one consecutive patients who were admitted to the hospital because of electrical injury were studied. Forty-eight had electric-current injury. The other 53 had flash, contact, or arcing burns (electrical injury without passage of current). A primary study cohort of 16 patients with electric-current injury and 18 patients who had electrical injury without passage of current received specialized trauma-based psychiatric treatment, which was coordinated with serial auditory and neurologic studies. This strategy served to highlight discrepancies between preinjury and postinjury performance. Twelve of 16 patients with electric-current injury showed neurobehavioral (organic) dysfunction after 1 year, which implied brain damage; eight showed persistent auditory changes. Four of 18 patients who had electrical injury without passage of current met criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder after 1 year; none had neurobehavioral or auditory dysfunction. These findings indicate that patients with electric-current injury are at risk for permanent auditory dysfunction and brain damage, whereas those with other types of electrical burns are not.

Language: en