Electrical Burns and Late Spontaneous Artery Ruptures: About Three Cases

Abstract

Electrical burns are responsible for arterial and venous thrombosis, as well as weakening of the arteries. Immediate or delayed arterial occlusions, secondary to the aggression of the intima, or aneurysms, secondary to the aggression of the media, sometimes lead to artery ruptures without any warning signs. Such ruptures may trigger a hemorrhagic shock whose period of onset is variable and unpredictable. We are presenting here three cases treated in our department for electrical burns, whose complications were marked by hemorrhagic shock, secondary to late artery ruptures, sometimes occurring several months following the event. These case reports required performance of emergency hemostasis in order to control sudden bleeding, with first approach being placement of a tourniquet at the base of the limb and/or a compression point. Through these cases, we thought it is crucial to closely monitor for a few weeks all patients who were victims of electrical injury, even more so if it was associated with a compartment syndrome of one or more limbs and high rhabdomyolysis, which seem to be predictive factors of late artery ruptures in our case reports.

Skin Oncoplasties: Is Z-Plasty A Technique of Choice In Situation of Limited Resources? Case of Burkina Faso.

“…Pedicle aps are used to ll in surgical defects [19]. Local skin or musculocutaneous T-and H-shaped aps are used to treat skin defects in the forehead [20]. Rhombic aps, which are local transposition aps, are used to ll defects after skin cancer surgery in the head and neck region [19].…”

“…In addition to the size of the tumour, the indications for Z-plasty in our series were the absence of superinfection of the tumour, the absence of bony relief making it di cult to mobilise the aps, and the localisation of the tumour in an area where aps can be mobilised. The size of the mobilised aps remains function of the width of the surgical wound [18,20]. However, for vitality of the aps in the Z-plasty that are free, non-pediculised aps, we followed the 2:1 rule, meaning the length should not be more than twice the width.…”

“…The ap does not increase the recurrence rate, nor does it interfere with other adjuvant oncological treatments [19,20]. The advantages of Z-plasty over secondary wound healing and skin grafting are short healing times and low postoperative care costs.…”

Experience of successful treatment and recovery of a patient with severe high voltage electric burns complicated with unilateral electric cataract

“…Finally, with comprehensive consideration by the doctor and the patient's requirements, the patient's right upper arm was amputated. This is because electrical burns can lead to thrombosis of arteries and veins, weakening of arteries, and sometimes rupture of arteries without any warning signs which makes it more difficult to cure (6).…”

“…It is necessary to pay close attention to and be aware of all possible manifestations and consequences. Several studies have shown that electric burns often requires multiple debridements and skin grafting to repair the wound, often need to prolong the initial treatment and amputation height more frequently, and the amputation rate of electric burns is much higher than that of other burn patients (4)(5)(6).…”