Current transmission
Current transmission as a result of high voltage electrical injury can result in damage to many tissues:
- surface injury: full-thickness injury at the sites of entry, exit and contact with the source
- skeletal muscle:
- deep muscle damage may be massive and not suggested by often minimal surface injury
- damage to muscles within the compartment of a limb results in swelling in a closed system and the potential for a compartment syndrome
- prophylactic fasciotomy should be considered if there is a potential for compartment syndrome
- heart: cardiac arrest
- gastrointestinal tract:
- perforation of bowel
- intestinal ileus
- lungs:
- apnoea
- burns to lung parenchyma
- kidneys: acute renal failure due tubular deposition of myoglobin and haemoglobin released from muscle and erythrocytes respectively
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