title: Cardiac monitoring in patients with electrocution injury.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The necessity of admitting patients exposed to electrocution injuries for monitoring and observation in the emergency department (ED) remains controversial.
  
  
  METHODS
  We evaluated the medical records of 102 patients (86 male, 16 female; median age 29.5; range 18 to 68 years) admitted to the adult ED with electrocution injuries over the past 20 years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Only 9 deaths were reported: 3 as a result of contact with low-voltage electricity and 6 after contact with high-voltage electricity. With the exception of a case of sepsis, all deaths were related to early rhythm abnormalities immediately following the incident. The ECG findings of surviving patients in the study group were as follows: 70 normal, 8 sinus tachycardia, 3 sinus bradycardia, 4 ST-T wave changes, and 1 ventricular extrasystole. ECG recordings of 7 patients could not be found. 72 cases had been followed up with repeat ECG recordings. There were no observed ECG changes requiring any medical or electrical therapies in the surviving patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Cardiac rhythm abnormalities related to electrocution injuries are usually observed at the time of the incident. If the patient's overall clinical condition is good and they have a normal ECG at the time of admission to the ED, the probability of observing any delayed serious dysrhythmia is unlikely.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency Medicine, Hacettepe University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey. meltemakkas@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Meltem
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Akkaş
authors.forename: Hilal
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hocagil
authors.forename: Didem
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ay
authors.forename: Bülent
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Erbil
authors.forename: Mehmet Mahir
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Kunt
authors.forename: Mehmet Mahir
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Ozmen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality; D004556:Electric Injuries / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D055815:Young Adult