In 2007, e-cigarettes became available for sale on the United States market and since then, their use has grown among smokers. Many resemble traditional cigarettes, cigars, and pipes, and prices for e-cigarettes range from $30 to $300. Commercialization has produced many different models with various shapes that differ on how much nicotine can be released with each inhalation. ![]() It is commonly referred to as “vaping,” in contrast to smoking, because combustion does not occur. Typically, smokers use nicotine, cannabis, hash, or other simple flavor vapors. ![]() Unlike traditional cigarettes, there is no burning of tobacco leaves that occurs or tar produced. Also, there is insufficient data to support or deny the long-term health effects of using e-cigarettes.Įlectronic cigarettes, also known as e-cigarettes, are lithium-battery-powered devices that produce a heated aerosol (or vapor) for recreational smoking. New efforts should be made to educate the community and healthcare providers regarding the potential hazardous implication of carrying these batteries. products and its potential hazardous implications. Prevention of these burns will require continuing education for the community on the use of E-cig. This makes them particularly susceptible to the “thermal runaway.” Therefore, we recognized the need to expand the regulation and control of the quality of these devices. The e-cigarette batteries seem more prone to failure due to an inherent weakness in their structural design. Most of these burns are managed with complex wound care without any surgical interventions. Our experience with these burns has been similar to what is previously reported. One patient stayed for eight days for pain control and complex wound care. Five patients were discharged home within a week, including the patient who required operative excision and auto-grafting. The rest of our patients were treated conservatively with complex wound care, which included the mixed combination of topical collagenase and bacitracin, collagenase and mafenide, or silver sulfadiazine as a single-agent treatment with an excellent response. Only one of our six patients required tangential excision and skin grafting. Laser Doppler imaging (LDI) was used to evaluate the indeterminate depth of the burn. ![]() Lund-Browder diagrams and calculations were used to assess the total body surface area (TBSA) burns. This is a retrospective review and analysis of six patients with superficial, partial, and full-thickness burn injuries related to e-cigarette battery explosions managed at Johns Hopkins Bayview Burn Center over the course of one year. Overcharge, puncture, external heat, short circuit, amongst others, are conditions that cause a “thermal runaway.” Explosions occur through a process known as a "thermal runaway.” This process occurs when the battery overheats and the internal battery temperature increases dangerously high, to the point of inner fire and explosion. In the last few years, the medical community has encountered increasing episodes of burn injuries secondary to e-cigarette battery explosion. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been regulating e-cigarettes as tobacco products and not as drug-delivery devices, as many medical experts think it should be categorized. It has gained significant popularity among younger-generation tobacco smokers due to its advertisement as a non-toxic inhalation property and a potential smoking-cessation aid. Electronic cigarettes, also known as e-cigarettes (E-cig), are lithium-battery-powered devices, which became available for sale in the United States in 2017.
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