Abstract | December 20, 2021
Burn Injury from Smoking Electronic Cigarettes on Supplemental Oxygen
Learning Objectives
- Realize that smoking electronic cigarettes while on supplemental oxygen may result in injury.
Introduction:
Burn injuries from exploding electronic cigarettes have been well documented in the medical literature and lay press, as have injuries from smoking conventional cigarettes while on supplemental oxygen. However, there is a paucity of literature regarding injuries from smoking electronic cigarettes on oxygen. Empirically, it might seem safe to use e-cigarettes while on oxygen, but it may result in explosion. The electronic this study is to describe and characterize this relatively novel and uncommon mechanism of injury.
Methods:
This study was a descriptive review of 2013-2016 National Burn Repository (NBR) Data. Injury description fields were queried for “oxygen,” “O2,” “electronic cigarettes,” and various abbreviations and misspellings. Demographics, burn size, length of stay, expected length of stay using 1.1 days per %TBSA, and LOS index were reported. In addition, a Google search for lay press articles using the terms “smoking,” “’oxygen,” and “electronic (or e) cigarettes” was performed, and these cases were tabulated.
Results:
Of approximately 60,000 NBR entries, only 8 records of injury while smoking e-cigs on oxygen were found. Patients were predominantly male (63%) with a mean age of 63+/- 9 years old, burn size of 3.4%+/-4 TBSA and LOS of 5.8+/-7 days. Inpatient stay averaged 1.65 days per %TBSA, which was 150% of expected LOS for the cohort. Two patients sustained third degree burns of 0.5% and 11%TBSA. One patient had an inhalation injury. Most injuries occurred at home (88%), while one occurred in a hospital. All 8 patients had Medicare and none of them suffered mortality. A google search revealed three distinct lay press articles regarding this topic.
Conclusions:
Although an uncommon mechanism of injury, smoking electronic cigarettes on supplemental oxygen can result in injury and a significant hospital stay. Circumstances resulting in this pattern warrant further investigation, as it is unclear if it occurs from malfunction or a hot coil alone. Patients who are prescribed home O2 should be warned about this potential danger.
