Electrical injuries — Not all bad?

Abstract

The action of electrical currents on living tissues has been a subject of fascination since the early descriptions of electrical currents. Electricity has been documented as a control system in organ function in the heart and nervous system. In tissues electrical potentials have been documented, particularly in healing wounds. A skin battery potential has been described and electrical currents have been demonstrated in the amputation stumps of lower vertebrates during limb regeneration. The possibility exists that electrical currents may have beneficial effects in stimulating the healing process. It is even possible that some of these effects are apparent at the margins of areas injured by electrical current. To achieve a better understanding of these beneficial effects, a number of experimental studies have been performed in our laboratories. A number of models of the wound healing process have been adopted. It has been shown that punched holes will heal in skin specimens maintained in a viable state in vitro in tissue culture medium. stimulation of these skin specimens by passage of a low current has been shown to speed the rate of reduction of the punched holes. Active self proliferation has been noted at the wound margins by BRDU uptake and the deposition of hyaluronic acid has been noted.