Electrical, Chemical & Cold Injury

Chapter 27 of Volume 3, Skin, Burns & Surgical Principles. Revision notes and examiner-style viva questions with model answers for the FRCS (Plast).

21 viva questions in this chapter

1. What determines the severity of an electrical injury?
   Model answer for subscribers
2. What is the difference between a low-voltage and a high-voltage injury, and what is the threshold?
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3. A 24-year-old lineman has contacted an 11 kV overhead cable and fallen four metres. He is in your resus room. Take me through the first hour.
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4. Does every patient with an electrical injury need cardiac monitoring?
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5. His urine is dark red-brown. What is it, and what are you going to do?
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6. The forearm is swollen and firm. Would you fasciotomise it?
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7. What are the late sequelae of electrical injury, and who needs follow-up?
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8. There has been a lightning strike at an outdoor event. Five people are down. What do you do first?
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9. An 18-month-old has bitten through a phone charger cable. There is a grey eschar at the left oral commissure. What do you tell the parents?
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10. A man is brought in having been splashed on the arm and chest with an unknown industrial chemical. What do you do?
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11. Why is an alkali burn worse than an acid burn?
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12. Take me through the specific agents you would expect to meet.
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13. A glass etcher has splashed hydrofluoric acid on his right hand an hour ago. He is in agony and the hand looks almost normal. Talk me through it.
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14. Your unit is being asked to buy Diphoterine. What would you advise?
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15. A 22-year-old man has had a corrosive liquid thrown in his face in the street. He is shouting that he cannot see.
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16. A climber is helicoptered off Ben Nevis eight hours after his hands went numb. The fingers are white and hard. What do you do?
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17. A soldier comes back from a wet winter exercise. His feet are swollen, bright red and exquisitely painful. What is this?
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18. Tell me about radiation burns.
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19. This was an industrial accident. What are your responsibilities?
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20. He was drunk when he was electrocuted and he wants to go home. Does he have capacity?
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21. The toddler’s mother is asking whether this was her fault.
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