Electrical Burns

Electrical burns happen when an electrical current generates enough heat to damage cells in your body. This can happen when an electrical current touches or travels through you.

While other types of burns damage your body from the outside in, electrical burns can also cause serious injuries inside you.

Symptoms of electrical burns

The symptoms of electrical burns can vary depending on how deep they travel in your body and the parts they affect. These can include:

• Pain, numbness or tingling (depending on burn severity)
• Entry and exit wounds (more likely with high-voltage burns)
• Blistering, peeling or swelling
• Redness or darkening (making skin look blackened, scorched, charred or ashen)

While electrical burns often cause very visible damage, sometimes the damage you can see doesn’t look as bad as the damage inside your body. That’s why pain from an electrical burn can feel worse than the burn looks.

Electrical burn causes

There are many ways electrical burns can happen. These include:

• Accidental shocks from power lines
• Carrying batteries in your pockets with other items that electricity travels through easily, like keys or coins
• Contact with or arcing from live, ungrounded or improperly grounded power lines or towers
• Damaged appliances or machines, or from frayed or damaged cables, wires or cords
• Electrical current traveling through water and causing a shock
• Doing electrical work (professional and nonprofessional)
• Improper installation or use of electrical generators, or using extension cords or power strips improperly
• Lightning strikes (either directly or if electricity from the strike “splashes” and hits you)
• Working on electrical appliances or devices
• Working on automobiles, especially if the battery isn’t disconnected properly

About 1 in 5 electrical burns happens to children. They’re at risk from things like chewing on cables or cords, or touching or inserting something into unprotected electrical sockets.

Complications of electrical burns

Electrical burns can cause severe or life-threatening complications, especially when electricity travels through your body.

Some tissues, like muscles and nerves, are good electrical conductors. But others — like skin, fat and bones — aren’t. When electricity can’t flow easily, some of it converts to heat.

Some of the complications include:

• Bone fractures (higher voltages can heat your bones enough to break them)
• Compartment syndrome
• Dehydration or electrolyte imbalances (especially with larger burns)
• Internal burns or other injuries (from electricity itself or from heating of bones and other tissues)
• Loss of consciousness or coma
• Muscle breakdown that can lead to kidney failure and other muscle injuries
• Necrosis (especially with severe tissue damage)

Severe injuries, including electrical burns, can also lead to mental health conditions and issues. That includes anxiety, depression, irritability or PTSD.

Your healthcare provider can tell you more about what to expect in your case.

How doctors diagnose electrical burns

Healthcare providers diagnose electrical burns using a few methods. They’ll do a physical exam to look for injuries. They’ll also do a neurological exam to check your nerves and brain.

Asking you (or someone who was with you) questions can help with diagnosing an electrical burn. That’s especially true if you have internal injuries that aren’t plain to see.

What your provider may ask about

Details matter with electrical burns, and your provider will ask about them. Try to give them as much information as possible about how the burn happened. It can help your treatment.

Two key details that may help are the voltage and amperage. The higher either is, the worse an electrical burn can be. Experts consider anything over 100 volts or 500 volts (depending on who you ask) high voltage.

But it doesn’t take high numbers for either to cause a burn. Homes in the U.S. use 120-volt circuits. That’s more than enough to cause severe electrical burns. And it only takes about 0.05 amps (50 milliamps) to cause dangerous arrhythmias like ventricular fibrillation.

Tests used with electrical burns

If there’s a chance you could have internal electrical burn injuries, your provider may also recommend running:

• Blood tests to look for signs of tissue damage
• Urine tests to check your kidneys
• Imaging scans, like CT scans or ultrasound, to look for signs of internal injuries

Healthcare providers will usually run tests on your heart, like an electrocardiogram (EKG), if they know you received an electric shock. This is common with electrical injuries, including burns. They do this to make sure your heart is OK.

How are electrical burns treated?

If you’re with someone who is being shocked, start with electric shock first aid. Don’t touch them. Turn off the power entirely if you can. Or use something nonconductive to break the connection (like something entirely made of plastic or wood).

Electrical burns — no matter how minor they look — always need medical care. If it’s enough to burn you, it’s enough to cause internal injuries.

Burns from low-voltage shocks need fast care. Don’t try to self-treat these. Go to the nearest emergency room or hospital for treatment. High-voltage electrical shocks are always a medical emergency. Call 911 or your local emergency services number immediately.

Low-voltage shocks without burns aren’t an emergency. But you should see your primary care provider within the next two days, or go to an urgent care or clinic. But if you start developing other symptoms, go to a hospital or emergency room.

Professional medical care for electrical burns

Professional treatments for electrical burns vary depending on burn severity and depth. Because these burns can be complex, more severe burns usually need treatment in a larger hospital facility, especially those with burn units.

In general, skin surface burns typically need the same treatment as burns from heat. Those include:

• Bandages or dressings
• Cleaning and debriding (removing dead or damaged tissue to help injuries heal)
• Surgery, including skin grafts
• Wound care
• Pain treatments
• Physical therapy

The more serious complications of electrical burns often need specific treatments. Some examples include:

• Breathing support (if you can’t breathe on your own for some reason)
• Splints or casts for bone fractures
• IV fluids to make sure you stay hydrated
• Medications or treatments to help your kidneys filter out toxins from damaged muscle tissue
• Surgeries like fasciotomy for compartment syndrome or to remove dead tissue

You might need other treatments, depending on your injuries. Your healthcare provider can offer recommendations and tell you more.

What can I expect if I have an electrical burn?

What to expect from an electrical burn depends on many factors. The severity of the burn is one. But the type of electric current, voltage and more can all play a factor. Your healthcare provider is the best person to tell you more.

Can electrical burns be prevented?

Some of the most important ways to prevent electrical burns include:

• Always stay away from downed power lines, and don’t drive through water near them.
• Don’t use devices, cords or cables with visible fraying or damage.
• Never use electrical devices or switches when standing in water.
• Leave work with or near electricity to professionals.
• Protect children by covering electrical sockets, keeping electrical cords out of reach, etc.
• Read safety manuals and follow instructions when using devices that run on electricity.
• Turn off or disconnect power completely when doing electrical work.