Hepatic “split lesion” in a fatal electrocution case

Abstract

The first recorded death caused by electrical current from an external source was reported in 1879, when a carpenter in Lyon, France, inadvertently contacted a 250 V alternating current generator [1]. Electrical injuries (excluding lightning) are responsible for >500 deaths per year in the USA. A little more than half of them occur in the workplace and constitute the fourth leading cause of work-related traumatic death (5–6% of all worker’s deaths) [2]. Medical literature typically categorizes electrocution according to the level of applied voltage: low voltage (less than 1000 V) and high voltage (greater than 1000 V); as reported from medical-legal practice, 14–40% of mortal electrocution are caused by high-voltage injuries [3,4]. It is well known that an electrical shock may cause death or any degree of damage to various organs and systems; the severity of electric shock injury is dependent upon many variables: type of current, level of applied voltage, duration of shock, body contact surface area, resistance of tissue involved, contact with water or metal conductor and current pathway through the body [5]. The electrical shock may strike the victim’s central nervous system, the cardiovascular apparatus, the skeletal muscular tissue, the lungs, the skin and other internal organs [6]. Severe abdominal visceral injuries by electricity are a rare entity; in particular, we rarely come across cases of hepatic lesions. In