Burn centers should be involved in prevention of occupational electrical injuries.

Abstract

Electrical injuries are uncommon, comprising 10% of our regional burn center admissions during a 9-year period. The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence, type, and location of occupation-related electrical injuries in an attempt to focus our injury prevention and outreach efforts. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of patients with electrical injuries admitted to our burn center from January 1992 through March 2000, with focused analysis on those patients admitted with occupation-related electrical injuries. Of the 95 patients admitted for electrical burns, 81% (n = 77) were occupational injuries. This rate of injury suggests that prevention efforts should be directed at work sites and partnerships should be developed between burn centers and businesses to reduce the incidence of injuries.