Environmental injuries can result in serious neurologic morbidity. This chapter reviews neurologic complications of thermal burns, smoke inhalation, lightning strikes, electric injury, near drowning, decompression illness, as well as heat stroke and accidental hypothermia. Knowing the pathophysiology and clinical presentation of such injuries is essential to proper management of primary and secondary medical complications. This chapter highlights the most frequently encountered neurologic injuries secondary to common environmental hazards, divided into the topics: injuries related to fire, electricity, water, and the extremes of temperature.
Keywords: asphyxial injury; burn encephalopathy; burns; carbon monoxide poisoning; cyanide poisoning; drowning; environmental injuries; heat stroke; hypothermia; hypoxic-ischemic injury; lightning strikes; near drowning.
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