A survey on 30 months electrical burns in Shiraz University of Medical Sciences Burn Hospital

Abstract

Electrical burn is less common nowadays but still has complications and requires therapeutic interventions especially in developing countries. It occurs more in males and in industrial sites. The importance of electrical burn led us to study a 30 months history of electrical burn in Shiraz, Southern Iran. In a cross-sectional retrospective study, 1352 patients were surveyed for 30 months in relation to the cause, time, demographic information, therapeutic measures and prognosis of the electrical burn. Among burn patients, 4.73% were due to electrical burns (mean age, 30.5 years) and 95.3% were male. The mean hospitalization period was 11.5 days and the mean burn extent was 27.5%. Half of the victims were employees and 59.3% of the electrical burns occurred at their work site. 67.2% of burns were due to high voltage electrical current (more than 1000 V) and 4.6% of the patients died due to the direct cause of electrical burn. The high prevalence of electrical burn in males and workers emphasizes on the essence of standardization of occupational areas and use of trained workers to prevent electrical burns.