Ultrastructural aspects of electric burn in man.

The authors have studied the ultrastructural aspects of the electric burn in human skin. They divide the lesion in three areas: a central one, in which the stratum corneum is almost completely lost, and the other strata are reduced only to fragment oriented in an univocal direction; an intermediate area, in which this orientation is visible also in nuclei, desmosomes, tonofilaments, and in which the nuclei appear elongated respect to those of control section; and finally a peripheral area in which damages are very reduced, but in which are present elongation of nuclei and other structures and orientation. The possibility of an action due to an electro-magnetic field is discussed.