Predicting post-electrical injury autonomic dysfunction symptom occurrence by a simple test

Abstract

BackgroundSensory, motor, and autonomic neuropathy has been reported after electrical injury. Besides subclinical involvement of the sympathetic nervous system during the 1st year post injury, late clinical manifestations of this involvement have been reported sporadically. This study was designed to investigate how the clinical and electrodiagnostic manifestations of sympathetic involvement would change with time in electricity victims. Methods and materialsSixty electrically burnt patients were followed for 22 months with sympathetic skin response (SSR) and autonomic system derangement symptom surveillance. ResultsThirty-one patients reported autonomic derangement symptoms during the 2nd year post injury. SSR latency prolongation showed direct negative correlation with time; but SSR amplitude was decreased in all cases irrespective of the time laps. Symptomatic patients showed significantly lower SSR amplitudes compared to asymptomatic ones. This was true for the pre-symptom SSR test results too. ConclusionSSR amplitude can be used as a predictive test for the symptoms of autonomic derangement to occur post electrical injury.