Abstract
ObjectiveThis study investigates whether individuals who have sustained an electrical injury (EI) are diagnosed with unspecified pain or pain related to the musculoskeletal system in the years following the injury.MethodsIndividuals listed in Danish registers as having sustained EIs were matched for sex, age, and year of injury in a cohort study with individuals having experienced dislocations/sprains (match 1), eye injuries (match 2), and a sample of individuals with the same occupation without a history of electrical injuries (match 3). Outcomes were unspecified pain and unspecified soft tissue disorders. Conditional logistic regression and conditional Cox regression were applied.ResultsWe identified 14,112 individuals who sustained EIs. A higher risk of both outcomes was observed for all three matches, and was highest at the 6- and 12-month follow-ups. The risk of both outcomes was considerably higher for match 3.ConclusionsThis study confirms that exposure to EIs increases the risk of being diagnosed with unspecified pain or unspecified soft tissue disorders both at short and long terms. Our results also showed that the risk of unspecified pain as sequelae is related to the severity of the injury.
Highlights
People of all ages are exposed to electric shocks, for example, at home or at work
This study investigates whether individuals who have sustained electrical injury (EI) are diagnosed with unspecified pain or pain related to the musculoskeletal system in the years following the injury
When the overlap was resolved and only the initial EI was kept for each individual, we had 13,317 EIs from the Danish National Patient Register (DNPR) and 795 EIs from the Danish Working Environment Authority (DWEA) register for the injury matches
Summary
People of all ages are exposed to electric shocks, for example, at home or at work. Most people who are exposed to electric shocks experience brief pain and discomfort, for which they do not seek medical attention. Some of the people who sustain an EI experience long-term sequela, such as pain, paraesthesia, Pain as a long-term or delayed physiological sequela after EIs may sometimes be overlooked in patients, especially after EIs with less severe immediate physiological symptoms. The results of a study by Fish et al showed that patients that had sustained low-voltage EIs are often referred for specialized consultations and tests, which generally are ineffective for correlating their longterm symptoms with the initial EI (Fish et al 2012). This may be because sequela of EIs resemble those of many other conditions, specialists perform examinations that
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