Acute vertebrobasilar ischemic stroke due to electric injury

Electrical injuries are most commonly due to household accidents.Various factors determine the severity of electric injury, including type of current, amperage, voltage, tissue resistance, pathway of current,and duration of contact with the body. Various types of neurologic damage due to electrical injury have been described in literature. It may manifest as peripheral nerve injury, spinal cord damage, seizures, cerebellarataxia, hypoxic encephalopathy, and intracerebral hemorrhage. Acute ischemic stroke is an infrequent complication of electrical injury. Herein,we report a case of middle-aged man, who accidentally sustained high voltage electrical injury followed by acute vertebrobasilar ischemic stroke. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain showed acute infarctin bilateral cerebellar and medial occipital regions. Computed tomographic angiogram of the brain and neck vessels was normal. Possibly,in our patient, the mechanism could be related to direct vascular injury due to electric current.