Electrical injury

Electrical injury

Tests and testing

Published in John M. Madden, Electrical Safety and the Law, 2017

Live testing of equipment, apparatus and installations is a common cause of electrical injury and requires careful consideration and planning of the precautions needed to reduce the risks to an acceptable level. It should be carried out only if there is no alternative, such as fault tracing using continuity testing rather than measuring voltage. An example of a fatal accident will illustrate the point.

Application of multi-component fluid model in studies of the origin of skin burns during electrosurgical procedures

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Journal Information

Published in Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, 2021

Marija Radmilović-Radjenović, Martin Sabo, Branislav Radjenović

The term ‘electrical burn’ is usually used to indicate the variety of injuries caused by supraphysiologic electrical energy interacting with living tissue, often linked to electrosurgical procedures. Electrical injuries occur when the human body comes in contact with an electrical source, either directly or through material that is a conductor. Interference between electrosurgical energy and active implants has been thoroughly discussed in the scientific literature (Saaiq et al. 2012; Park et al. 2014; Bae et al. 2018, Martinsen et al. 2019). Both alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) produce a wide variety of biological effects at the cellular and tissue levels (Phillips et al. 2008). The higher the voltage and amperage, the greater the ensuing electrical injury (for the same duration of exposure) (Petri et al. 2017).

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Tests and testing

Application of multi-component fluid model in studies of the origin of skin burns during electrosurgical procedures