Points & Pearls: Electrical injuries in the emergency department: an evidence-based review

Abstract

Electrical injuries can be caused by exposure to current from low-voltage and high-voltage sources as well as lightning strikes, and the circumstances of the exposure will dictate management strategies. Human tissues have varying resistance characteristics and susceptibility to damage, so injuries may be thermal, electrical, and/or mechanical, potentially causing burns, thrombosis, tetany, falls, and blast injury. This issue reviews the types of trauma seen with electrical injury and how body systems can be affected by occult or delayed effects, and the optimal evidence-based resuscitation and management strategies associated with each. [Points & Pearls is a digest of Emergency Medicine Practice.]