A Review of Electrocardiography Changes in Electrical Burn Injury: Is It Time To Revise Protocol?

Abstract

This descriptive cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate electrocardiography (ECG) changes in patients with electrical burn injury and determine their predictive extent during hospitalization. The study population consisted of all patients with electrical injury admitted to Velayat Hospital, Rasht, Iran, during 2007-2019. The ECG information of all patients assessed by a cardiologist in terms of dysrhythmic and ischemic changes at the time of admission, demographic information including age, gender, voltage, the severity and path of the current, and degree of burn were recorded in the relevant checklist. The data were analyzed using the SPSS software version 18 (IBM, USA). Out of 192 studied patients, 183 (95%) were male, and the mean age of patients was 32 years. The ECGs of 167 patients were normal (86%), 13 cases had arrhythmia (6.7%), and 12 individuals had ischemia (6.2%). Arrhythmic and ischemic abnormalities in the ECGs of patients had no predictive value during hospitalization (P<0.05). Heart injury caused by electrical injury may be deadly in some cases, and it can be complicated to save the patient. Moreover, the predictive value of ECG in predicting the consequences and duration of hospitalization is weak.