ABSTRACT
The passage of a substantial electrical current through the tissues can cause skin lesions, organ damage and death. This injury is commonly called ‘electrocution’, though some would use this term only if death occurs. Fatalities are usually accidental, in both a domestic and industrial environment. They are more common in developing than in industrialized countries. Suicides from electricity are relatively rare. Homicide is rare but is recorded and, in the USA, electricity has again become a means of judicial execution since 1976, and was in 2010 in use in nine states.1
