ELECTRICAL SAFETY FOR THE VETERINARY SURGEON

SUMMARY: In human medicine, protection of the patient has demanded stringent safety precautions that have not been applied in the veterinary field. There is a hazard to the operator from the increasing use of electrical equipment in veterinary medicine, often in an environment where conducting floors and other items can carry fault currents through a human or animal body. The source of these currents may be equipment that has developed faults due to disconnected earth leads and breakdown of insulation so that the case or leads from the equipment become live. Currents exceeding 10 mA passing through the body may cause death from ventricular fibrillation. Protection from accident may be provided by circuit breakers that sense fault currents and disconnect the power, and by taking precautions to correctly maintain electrical fittings.