A dynamic study of the thermal components in electrical injury mechanism for better understanding and management of electric trauma: an animal model.

摘要

The thermal effects of acute electric trauma to living cells show some variation patterns and kinetics for different body components (muscle, bone, blood-vein and skin). Thermal energy transfer is random with no preferred directions, but electrical energy transfer is vectorial in the direction of the current. In the present study, a total 50 white male Wistar Albino rats, body weight 250-300g, have been used to study electrical injury mechanism with subsequent change in muscle perfusion at different post-traumatic stages. The muscle temperature was found to increase with a sudden jump from [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text] degrees C. The bone temperature increased from [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text] degrees C and decayed slowly within [Formula: see text] s. The venous blood curves show a similar pattern to that of muscle with a sudden jump of temperature from [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text] degrees C. The core temperature showed a flat pattern with a slight increase from[Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text] degrees C and the peak temperature was found after [Formula: see text] s. From the scintigraphic study, muscle perfusion was found to be a minimum 72h after electric shock. The right hind limbs of all the rats (ground) exhibited more intense histopathological damages (electric burns) than the left fore limb (source).