Electrical injuries are essentially burn injuries, and heat production is related to resistance as we can read here:
https://www.researchgate.net/post/can_there_be_amputation_in_a_case_of_high_tension_electrocution
So in presence or absence of electrocution mark (electrical burn) on skin we can consider that one of the main factors is the skin resistance, related to thick skin, callosity (increases resistance) with a visible mark; or thin and wet skin (decreases resistance) with a minimum or abscent mark.
There are other important aspects, like contact surface, time of contact, voltage, etc.
Different injuries are produced by electric arc or lightning
Regards
Herbstein
PS: attached you can see an electrical burn.
For lower voltage contacts, there is about a 50% chance of there being no burn marking. Because the burn mark is a local effect, the presence or absence of burns does not necessarily predict the severity of internal injury. (Obviously severe and extensive full thickness burns are a predictor.) The mechanism of internal electrical injury is not necessarily thermal. Burning is the result of I-squared R heating where R is the localized resistance and I is directly proportional to voltage and inversely proportional to resistance between entry and exit points. The greater the value of I-squared times R, the more likely that a burn will occur in a shorter time. Energy imparted is I-squared x R x T where T is time. Simply stated if there is enough current density and enough resistance and enough time to elevate the skin locally to a temperature that will induce a burn, then there will be a burn. Absent those factors, a burn will not occur. Wet skin causing lower Resistance and more diffuse entry causing lower current density can reduce the chance of burning even when the contact is quite significant.
Dear Manoj,
Electric wound is produced due to endogenous heat production and the damage due to heat production depends upon the area involved, time for which current flow and amount of current flow (H=I2RT where H is heat, I is current, R is resistance which is inversely proportional to the area involved, and T is time). So due to these different factors, electric wound is not produced in every case of electric injury
Absent current marks in cases of:
1- Very low voltage electric current.
2- Very brief contact with the current.
3- Very wide area of contact with the current.
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