Electrical burn injuries of 246 patients treated at the University Clinical Center of Kosovo during the period 2005–2010

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 v 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.