Background: Piercings are placed at different body sites often invisible to medical staff. They may cause additional injuries in trauma and emergency surgery by electro-cautery.
Objective: To clarify whether electrosurgery will have a direct damaging effect to the skin around a pierced skin area.
Methods: Metallic piercings were fixed at defined distances from the neutral and active electrode on abdominal pig skin. The distance of the active electrode was reduced by 5 mm increments to 0. The respective increases in temperature were determined with a thermal camera. A macroscopic and histological analysis of the area around the piercing to detect thermal damage was carried out.
Results: Significant increases in temperature and visible changes in the tissue around the piercing only occurred when the active electrode was in direct contact with the piercing (increase of 47.3∘C). Electro-cautery in distance of 5 to 10 mm to the piercing showed only temperature increases of less than 5∘C.
Conclusions: If metallic piercings are not directly touched by the active electrode and the distance is more than 5-10 mm, no clinically relevant effect is created on the tissue in direct proximity to the piercings by electro-cautery. In an emergency surgery situation, a piercing not fixed in direct proximity to the surgical field may likely be ignored.
Keywords: Electrosurgery; body jewelry; body piercing; burn injury.