Features of the Myelopathy in Patients with Electrical Burn

J Korean Neurol Assoc > Volume 25(2); 2007 > Article

Journal of the Korean Neurological Association 2007;25(2): 180-186.

전기화상 환자에서 발생한 척수병증의 양상

남경식, 차명진 김민주 오미선 민양기 조수진 권기한

병무청 중앙신체검사소 신경과*, 한림대학교 의과대학 신경과학교실

Features of the Myelopathy in Patients with Electrical Burn

Kyeong-Sik Nam,

Department of Neurology, Physical Reexamination Center, Military Manpower Administration, Seoul, Korea* Department of Neurology, Hallym University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Abstract

Background: Electrical injury can cause serious damage to any part of the nervous system. However spinal cord injury by electricity itself rarely develops. If develops, it can be either electrical myelopathy (immediate or delayed), spinal atrophic paralysis and/or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-like disease. We are going to report the clinical, electrophysiological and radiographic features of electrical myelopathy (immediate or delayed) of 18 patients.
Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical, electrophysiological and radiographic data of patients who were diagnosed as electrical myelopathy.
Results: Among 1,306 patients with electrical injury, 18 patients (1.4%) had electrical myelopathy. Fifteen patients (83%) had motor symptoms and 16 patients (89%) had sensory symptoms or signs. It is interesting for seven patients to appear their neurological symptoms or signs with a day after electrical injury. Somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) which were done in 17 patients showed abnormal central conduction defects in 12 patients (70.5%). Magnetic resonance images (MRI) of spinal cord, however, did not show any abnormalities in all the tested patients (15 patients).
Conclusions: Clinically, electrical myelopathy can cause not only motor but also sensory symptoms or signs. Interestingly, there were several immediate as well as delayed forms of electrical myelopathy In most patients with electrical myelopathy, SEP was a useful method to detect objective abnormalities but MRI was not. KeyWords:Electrical burn, Myelopathy, Somatosensory evoked potential