title: Electrical injuries and lightning.
abstract: Prolonged cardiopulmonary resuscitation is key to the resuscitation of lightning strike victims. Multiple accounts exist of successful revival of victims thought to be "dead" or in patients who have what is often believed to be unresuscitatable cardiac dysrhythmia. Victims of lightning injury may, in addition to their electrical injury, have secondary injuries that require expedient care if significant morbidity is to be avoided. They should be treated as any victim of trauma, that is, with a complete and thorough evaluation including hospitalization if warranted. In the absence of a cardiac arrest or serious secondary injury, care for the lightning strike victim is generally supportive in nature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Maryland Medical Center, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore.
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Browne
authors.forename: W R
authors.initials: WR
authors.lastname: Gaasch
mesh_terms: D004556:Electric Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D004560:Electricity; D004630:Emergencies; D006801:Humans; D008030:Lightning; D015168:Lightning Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy