Citation

Duci SB, Arifi HM, Ahmeti HR, Selmani ME, Buja ZA, Gashi MM, Zatriqi VK, Mekaj AY. Eur. J. Trauma Emerg. Surg. 2014; 40(6): 679-685.

Affiliation

Department of Neurosurgery, University Clinical Center of Kosovo, Prishtina, Kosovo. agon_mekaj@hotmail.com.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00068-014-0379-6

PMID

26814782

Abstract

BACKGROUND: In the developing world, the incidence of electrical injuries has increased in the past few years. Electrical injuries represent approximately 5 % of all burn admissions to burn units in the United States.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to understand the causes of electrical burns in our population, sex, age, duration of treatment, distribution of electrical burns by season, accompanying other traumatic injuries with electrical burns, entry lesions of high-voltage electrocution, location of injuries, the methods of treatment, duration of treatment, and mortality.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective study that included 246 patients with electrical burns treated in the 2005-2010 period at the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in Kosovo. The data were collected and analyzed from the archives and protocols of the University Clinical Center of Kosovo. Data processing was done with the statistical package InStat 3. From the statistical parameters the structural index, arithmetic median, and standard deviation were calculated. Data testing was done with the χ(2) test and the differences were considered significant if p < 0.05.

CONCLUSION: The high mortality, 9.1 %, and 7 patients (10.6 %) transferred out of our country for treatment is a reflection of the lack of a burn center in our department.

Language: en