Authors acknowledge this injury mechanism is rare, but say patients should be warned
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, May 17, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Although uncommon, smoking electronic cigarettes while on supplemental oxygen can result in injury, according to a study published in the March/April issue of the Journal of Burn Care & Research.
Ana Montoya, from the South Carolina Burn Center at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, and colleagues characterized burn injuries from e-cigarettes while on oxygen therapy using data from the National Burn Repository (2013 to 2016).
The researchers identified eight records of injury while smoking e-cigarettes on oxygen using the National Burn Repository data and five lay-press articles. The majority of incidents occurred at home (88 percent), and all patients survived. Patients were predominantly male, with a mean age of 63 years, a 3.4 percent burn area (Palmer Method of estimating total body surface area), and length of stay of 5.8 days. Two patients sustained full-thickness burns (0.5 and 11 percent total body surface area). Three patients were intubated for a mean of 3.33 ventilator-days.
“Future research efforts should involve collaborative strategies to better capture granular data involving incidence and advocacy for new ICD-10 codes to identify injuries,” the authors write. “In addition, solutions regarding education of providers, the general population, and patients with home oxygen prescriptions (and their loved ones) are necessary for injury prevention.”
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