High Voltage and Train-Surfing Injuries: A 30-Year Retrospective Analysis of High-Voltage Trauma and Its Impact on Cardiac Biomarkers.

: High-voltage electrical injuries (HVEIs) represent a complex and life-threatening entity, frequently involving multi-organ damage. While traditionally linked to occupational hazards, train surfing-riding on moving trains-and train climbing-scaling stationary carriages-have emerged as increasingly common causes among adolescents. Popularized via social media, these behaviors expose individuals to the invisible danger of electric arcs from 15,000-volt railway lines, often resulting in extensive burns, cardiac complications, and severe trauma.

High-Voltage Injuries and Train Surfing: A 30-Year Review of Epidemiology, Treatment, and Outcomes.

High-voltage injuries associated with train surfing are a distinct subset of electrical injuries, yet detailed analyses remain limited. This study retrospectively reviewed train-surfing injuries admitted between 1994 and 2024, comparing their characteristics and outcomes to work-related high-voltage injuries. Medical records of 102 patients admitted for high-voltage injuries were analyzed, including 32 train-surfing and 70 work-related cases.

Fake smoke, real fire: a retrospective single-center analysis of the underestimated risk of e-cigarette explosions and the typical burn patterns.

Parallel to the increasing dissemination of electronic cigarettes (E-cigarette) in the population, increasing numbers of burn injuries caused by explosions of the devices or the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries have been observed worldwide. Several cases of E‑cigarette-related explosions have already resulted in fatalities. We report a series of 7 patients who were treated at our department between 2016 and 2022.

Thirty Years of Experience with High-Voltage Injuries: Mechanisms, Current Flow Patterns, and Implications for Cardiac and Renal Failure in Train-Surfing vs. Work-Related Cases.

High-voltage injuries pose severe risks, particularly among train surfers and occupational workers. This study compares current flow mechanisms and their association with cardiac failure and kidney function problems in these groups. : A retrospective analysis of 102 patients treated for high-voltage injuries between 1994 and 2024 was conducted, including 32 train-surfing and 70 work-related cases.

Occupational reintegration after severe burn injury: a questionnaire study.

Background: As a consequence of improved survival rates after burn injury occupational reintegration of burn survivors has gained increasing significance. We aimed to develop a precise patient questionnaire as a tool to evaluate factors contributing to occupational reintegration.

Material And Methods: A questionnaire comprising 20 questions specifically evaluating occupational reintegration was developed under psychological supervision.

Update on hyperbaric oxygen therapy in burn treatment.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) has been shown to improve tissue hypoxia, neovascularization and ischemia reperfusion injury and reduce pathologic inflammation in various clinical settings and was proposed to be a game changer in treatment of burns. Improved and faster wound healing as well as a reduction of morbidity and mortality after thermal and concomitant carbon monoxide poisoning are expected. In defiance of the observed benefits for burn wounds and carbon monoxide poisoning in animal models and few randomized controlled trials there is an ongoing controversy regarding its use, indications and cost effectiveness.

Incidence of risk factors for bloodstream infections in patients with major burns receiving intensive care: A retrospective single-center cohort study.

Objectives: The objective was primarily to identify risk factors for bloodstream infections (BSI) caused by different pathogens.

Methods: A retrospective single-center cohort study was performed on 472 burn patients with an abbreviated burn severity index (ABSI)≥3, a total burn surface area (TBSA)≥10%, and an ICU stay of at least 24h. Risk factors for different BSI pathogens were analyzed by competing risks regression model of Fine and Gray.

Predisposing factors for candidemia in patients with major burns.

Background: Despite advances in surgery and critical care, candidemia remains a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with extensive burns.

Methods: A retrospective single-center cohort study was performed on 174 patients admitted to the Burn Intensive Care Unit of the General Hospital of Vienna (2007-2013). An AIC based model selection procedure for logistic regression models was utilized to identify factors associated with the presence of candidemia.

Non-occlusive mesenteric ischaemia: the prevalent cause of gastrointestinal infarction in patients with severe burn injuries.

Background: Gastrointestinal complications occur frequently in intensive care patients with severe burns. Intestinal infarction and its deleterious consequences result in high mortality despite rapid surgical intervention. Our objective was to evaluate the aetiology of gastrointestinal infarction in intensive care patients with severe burns.

Development of demographics and outcome of very old critically ill patients admitted to intensive care units.

Purpose: To evaluate the development of demographics and outcome of very old (>80 years) critically ill patients admitted to intensive care units.

Setting: All consecutive patients admitted to 41 Austrian intensive care units (ICUs) over an 11-year period.

Methods: We performed a retrospective cohort study of prospectively collected data.

The Veres adapter: clinical experience with a new device for jet ventilation via a laryngeal mask airway during flexible bronchoscopy.

Background: A new device was developed to deliver high-frequency jet ventilation via a laryngeal mask airway (LMA). We investigated its use during flexible fiberoptic bronchoscopy in anesthetized patients.

Methods: Thirty adults were studied during interventional bronchoscopy.

Intrinsic positive end-expiratory pressure at various frequencies of supraglottic jet ventilation in a model of dynamic upper airway obstruction.

Background: Supraglottic jet ventilation (JV(S)) with injectors above airway stenoses may result in inadvertent high lung pressures. We designed this study to investigate intrinsic positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP(i)) during jet ventilation via a distant injector in a model of dynamic upper airway obstruction.

Methods: Respiratory pressure-time curves were recorded during JV(S) in a tracheal lung model using a pig's trachea and an embolectomy catheter's air-filled balloon to simulate 60 and 80% airway obstruction.

Airway stenosis-related increase of pulmonary pressure during high-frequency jet ventilation depends on injector's position.

Background: High-frequency jet ventilation (HFJV) can lead to high-airway pressures under certain conditions. In this laboratory study, we evaluated the influence of the injector's position relative to a fixed airway obstruction on peak pressures in a tracheal-lung model.

Methods: We administered HFJV via a metal jet injector at varying distances from connectors simulating laryngotracheal airway stenosis.

Spinal versus general anesthesia for orthopedic surgery: anesthesia drug and supply costs.

Total hip or knee replacement surgeries are common orthopedic interventions that can be performed with spinal anesthesia (SA) or general anesthesia (GA). No study has investigated the economic aspects associated with the two anesthetic techniques for this common surgery. We randomized 40 patients to receive either SA or GA and analyzed the drug and supply costs for anesthesia und recovery.

[Perioperative pain management at the department of orthopaedic surgery of the Vienna Medical School].

Surgical treatment in the skeleton region and its adjacent tissue causes severe pain, demonstrated by the high demand of anaesthetics in the early postoperative phase. In order to offer adequate and individually adapted pain management, the orthopaedic department is working closely with the departments of anaesthesiology and intensive care medicine of the Vienna Medical University at the Vienna's General Hospital. The aim of this cooperation is to start postoperative rehabilitation early, to increase postoperative quality of life and to reduce the length of hospital stay.

Alveolar recruitment of atelectasis under combined high-frequency jet ventilation: a computed tomography study.

Objective: To quantify the effect of superimposed high-frequency jet ventilation on lung recruitment in adult patients with acute lung injury.

Design And Setting: Prospective clinical study in the intensive care unit of a university teaching hospital.

Patients: Eight adults suffering from acute lung injury with a mean lung injury score of 2.