[Is cardiac monitoring required after electrical injuries? (author's transl)].

Professional or spare time contacts with electrical appliances are, due to careless handling or technical inadequacies, potentially always associated with electrical injuries. The effects of the electric current on the body depends mainly on voltages: skin and muscle lesions predominate in high voltage injuries. Out of 23 patients, 19 with electrical injuries and 4 with lightning accidents, 18 showed normal ECGs at the time of hospital admission. There were no changes at follow-up. The remaining 5 patients had cardiac arrhythmias which disappeared after 1 1/2 to 36 hours using bedrest and symptomatic treatment only. Cardiac longterm monitoring is thus not required after electrical injuries.