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DOI: DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21088/nijs.0976.4747.13422.2

Abstract

Electrical burns constitute 3–5% of all burn cases; in developing countries, this ratio increases up to 21–27% and the mortality rate is reported to be between 3.75% and 58.8%. Most of the acute burns are life threatening, and require various types of surgical interventions such as eschar excision or split thickness skin grafting, depending on the size, location and depth of the lesion. The deep electrical burns to the scalp were difficult to manage as it was more prone to exposure of the calvarial bone. In our case, a calvarial bone at the vertex was exposed post-eschar excision. Tissue expansion is based on the principle that all living tissues respond in a dynamic fashion to mechanical stress placed on them. Below we present a case of electrical burns wound to the calvarium utilizing the use simple cost-effective external tissue expansion technique for preventing wound retraction and for holding the dressing of the scalp wound.

Keywords : External tissue expansion wound closure; Scalp; Electrical burns.

Corresponding Author : Ravi Kumar Chittoria, Professor & Registrar, Department of Plastic Surgery & Telemedicine, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Pondicherry 605006, India.