Electrical injury-induced ventricular fibrillation documented and treated with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator.

A 71-year-old man was found in generalized convulsion when he grabbed 6000 V alternating-current transmission lines with his bare hands. At the arrival of emergency medical services, his vital signs were as follows: Glasgow Coma Scale, E4V4M6; blood pressure, 130/80 mmHg; and pulse rate, 64 b.p.m. Deep burns were observed on both palms. He had a history of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy and had undergone an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). The ICD analysis documented that ventricular fibrillation (VF) (Figure 1, white arrowhead) suddenly occurred at the exact same time as he grabbed the transmission lines, which was defibrillated successfully at 36.3 J (Figure 1, black arrow) after 10.1 J (Figure 1, white arrow). He was diagnosed with electric injury-induced VF because neither ischemic heart disease nor electrolyte abnormality were observed on arrival according to laboratory tests, electrocardiogram, and echocardiography. The patient was discharged on day 2 with no neurological impairment. Although lethal arrhythmias caused by electrical injuries are widely known as a leading cause of death,1, 2 few case reports have documented VF recognized by paramedics at the scene.3-5 To our best knowledge, this is the first case report of electric injury-induced VF documented and defibrillated by ICD, resulting in a good neurological outcome. We would like to thank Editage for English language editing. The authors declare no conflicts of interest. Approval of the research protocol: N/A. Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from the patient. Registry and registration no. of the study/trial: N/A. Animal studies: N/A. Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.