Microwave oven burns to children: an unusual manifestation of child abuse.
Two children sustained full-thickness burns as a result of being placed in microwave ovens. Well demarcated burns occurred on the skin surfaces closest to the microwave-emitting devices. Morbidity was limited to complications of direct thermal effects. One of the children sustained a distinctive pattern of relative sparing of tissue layers without electrical burn features, such as nuclear streaming and charring, at the entrance site. In both instances eventual identification of this unusual etiology was initiated by child abuse concerns.
D002056:Burns / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D002649:Child Abuse; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008872:Microwaves / Q000009:adverse effects*