Electrical Burns in Albania and their Treatment: A Review of Cases Treated in 2019–2020

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Electrical burns, although constituting a small part of the burns treated in a tertiary hospital, remain a constant burden to the medical staff, due to the nature of the causative agent. PATIENTS AND METHODS: After the Institutional Review Board approval, a retrospective study was performed including all the patients admitted to the Service of Burns and Plastic Surgery, University Hospital Center “Mother Theresa” of Tirana, Albania, from January 2018 to  December 2019. Descriptive statistics was used to review the cases for age distribution, body surface area burned, points of entry and exit of the current, acute and late complications, surgical approach, and timing of the latter. RESULTS: Twenty-six patients were admitted during this period, of which 22 suffered a real electrical burn, four of them having only superficial damage from the flash of the electric arc without direct contact with the electrical source. Mean hospital stay was 58.1 days for true electrical burns and 7.5 days for burns from electrical arc. Each patient underwent three surgical interventions in average, of which 20% were  fasciotomies, 30% were eschar excision, 35% were reconstructive procedures, and 15% were amputations. Only one fatal outcome was  registered. About 36% of the patients were children and the only death was registered among them. Most of cases were due to neglect of safety measures while working with the electrical power, although being professional qualified workers. Acute complications were myoglobinuria, cardiac rhythm disorders, respiratory acidosis, psychomotor agitation, brain concussion and contusion, and acute bleeding.  Anemia is the most common late complication. CONCLUSIONS: The prevention is still the best treatment, especially for true electrical burns. Working with the corporate that controls the production and transmission of the electrical power could further reduce the incidence of true electrical burns, while moving to more aggressive surgical approach to such burns might avoid long-term complications and degree of invalidity caused by them.