• Sevdegül Karadaş, Hayriye Gönüllü, Mehmet Reşit Oncü, Dağhan Işık, and Yasin Canbaz.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, Yüzüncü Yıl University Faculty of Medicine, Van, Turkey.
• Ulus Travma Acil Cer. 2011 Jul 1; 17 (4): 349-53.

BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to investigate the demographic and clinical characteristics of electrical injuries, laboratory findings, complications, and mortality and morbidity rates of these injuries.MethodsPatients with electrical injuries admitted to the emergency department between January 2006-2010 were retrospectively analyzed. The cases were evaluated by age, gender, source of electrical power (low-high voltage), seasonal distribution, ECG changes, laboratory findings, clinical care units, complications, and mortality rate.ResultsEighty-four (57.1%) of the cases were exposed to low-voltage electricity (Group I), while 63 (42.9%) of the cases were exposed to high-voltage electricity (Group II). The majority of cases with electrical injuries were aged 26-45 years. Thirty of the women (85.7%) were wounded by low-voltage while 58 of the men (51.8%) were wounded by high-voltage electricity. Alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase, creatine kinase, and CK-MB levels were higher and the level of calcium was lower in Group II. Complications (pathologies due to fall from high levels, cardiac dysrhythmias, compartment syndrome) and the mortality rate were higher in Group II.ConclusionIn cases with high-voltage electrical injuries, cardiac complications, complications due to fall from high levels and the mortality rate increase in conjunction with the degree of the muscle damage.

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