Extensive facial damage caused by a blast injury arising from a 6 volt lead accumulator

Low-voltage electrical injuries are relatively uncommon. Injury caused by n ow of heavy current due to short-circuiting a low-voltage battery has not b een described in the English literature. A 9-year-old boy connected two thi n household electrical wires to the two terminals of a 6 volt (lead accumul ator) battery and pressed the other two ends between his teeth. This result ed in a blast causing a compound comminuted fracture of the mandible and ex tensive tissue damage in the oral cavity. The low internal resistance of a lead accumulator (similar to 0.03 ohms) pe rmits the flow of a heavy current (similar to 200 amps) when short-circuite d. This instantaneously vaporises a minuscule portion of wire at similar to 2000 K resulting in a sudden rise of intraoral pressure to 30 kg cm(-2) le ading to tissue damage.