The Apparent Death In Electrocution

Abstract

Background: Electrical injuries, though uncommon and largely preventable ,they usually have serious consequences including death .Objectives: To study the pattern of electric injuries, and recognize the factors that increase their mortality so that we can reduce it .Materials & Methods :A retrospective study of sever electrically injured cases in Babil Governorate during a period of 15 months, from January 2006 to March 2007 (included) was carried out. From the records of the burn wards of Hilla Teaching General Hospital and the autopsy records of Forensic Pathology Department of Babil Health Directorate, sever electrically injured victims were retrospectively studied according to the type of electric injury, the voltage, associated secondary traumatic injury and whether it is work related or not. .The age ,sex , location of entry and/or exit of the electric current and the emergency resuscitative measures applied in the Emergency Departments (EDs)were considered.Results:. The total number of electrically injured victims ( both hospitalized and non hospitalized ) were 33, 30(90.9%) cases due to contact with low voltage, 2(6.7%) due to high voltage and 1 (3.3%) due to lightning strike. Out of 28 cases for whom cardiopulmonary resuscitation was indicated, only in 14(50%) cases ,its application was recorded in the cards of Emergency Departments .Conclusions: The mortality rate following electrocution ,in Babil, was 93.93% which is too high in comparison with the international studies rate of 3-15%