Health Topic

Electrical Injuries

Electrical injuries are caused by contact with electricity. They include burns and damage to organs, bones, muscles, and nerves. Read about first aid.

Reviewed Reviewed by a registered pharmacistGeneral information

Also called: Electric shock · Electrical burn

Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.

About Electrical Injuries

When you come in direct contact with electricity, it can pass through your body and cause injuries. These electrical injuries can be external or internal. You may have one or both types. External injuries are skin burns. Internal injuries include damage to your organs, bones, muscles, and nerves. You could also have abnormal heart rhythms and sudden cardiac arrest (SCA).

How bad your injuries are depends on how strong the electric current was, what type of current it was, how it moved through your body, and how long you were exposed. Other factors include how healthy you are, and how quickly you get treatment.

Causes of electrical injuries include:

  • Lightning strikes
  • Faulty electrical appliances
  • Work-related exposures
  • Contact with household wiring or power lines
  • Accidents in small children, when they bite or suck on electrical cords, or stick objects in outlets

If you get an electrical injury, you should see a doctor. You may have internal damage and not realize it.

It sits within Injuries and Wounds.

When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.

Research on Electrical Injuries

412 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.

What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.

Research currently under way

Research already completed

Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.

Where to read more

Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.

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Medical subject headings

Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Burns, Electric, Electric Injuries. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.

This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Electrical Injuries, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.