Citation

Li WP, Zhu MS, Zhu ZX, Guan JC, Xu XG. Burns 2006; 32(8): 986-991.

Affiliation

Centre of Burns and Plastic Surgery, Shen Zhen Second Hospital, Shen Zhen 518035, Guang Dong, PR China.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.burns.2006.03.027

PMID

17045747

Abstract

Although many models of electrical injury have been established, none of them are completely typical of the clinical features of electrical injury. As a result, research based on these models were incapable of explaining many clinical phenomena such as continuous tissue necrosis and also were unable to cope with high ratio of amputation of extremities. In order to investigate the mechanism of electrical injuries and better model the condition with similar clinical characteristics we developed a new model. Seventy-five New Zealand rabbits were employed in this study, of them 45 were used in a preliminary experiment including the selection of the size of electrode plate area, damaged extent, time length of electrical injury and interval length between two injuries and so on. Another 30 rabbits were equally divided into five groups with electrical injury times of 6, 12, 18, 24 and 30 cycles, respectively. Observations were made using clinical anatomical exploration, with quantification using an IDBI scale on the 2nd, 8th, 24th, 48th hours and 5th, 15th days, and TC-99m-DMP isotope scanning and gamma photography at 2nd hour and 5th day in post-injury, respectively. The results showed the effective electric field strength was 17,000V/m, mean current intensity was 554mA, average current density was 137mA/cm(2) beneath the small electrode plate with 21mA/cm(2) beneath big one, and average increase of tissue temperature was 1.73 degrees C during injury process which excluded the possibility of thermal injury. One single wound injury beneath the small plate of the experimental rabbits with loss of injured extremities from 5th to 15th post-injury days in groups 3-5 and obviously progressive tissue necrosis in and outside the wounds were obtained. A series of electrical injured models from mild, moderate, severe, extra severe, and destructive which was exactly similar to the clinical features of electrical injury cases was established.

Language: en