Neurological and neuroimaging sequelae of lightning injury: a retrospective study and literature review
Tim Steinberg, Carsten Lukas, Berthold Schalke, Christina Wendl, Ralf Linker, Bernhard Neumann, Ingo Kleiter · 2026
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Description
Tim Steinberg and co-authors review brain effects of lightning strikes in a 2026 study. Lightning can injure many organs, the brain and spinal cord among them, yet imaging findings after strikes are seldom gathered. The team reviewed patients treated at two nerve centers over twenty years and searched past reports for more cases.
Thirty-one patients were included, most with brain scans. Findings included brain swelling, bleeding in or around the brain, tissue death after revival, and white matter spots of unclear meaning. Spinal scans in a subset showed cord lesions in several patients. Past reports echoed the same set: swelling, bleeding, stroke-like damage, and oxygen-starved brain injury. The authors map what clinicians should expect to find on scans after a strike.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Tim Steinberg, Carsten Lukas, Berthold Schalke, Christina Wendl, Ralf Linker, Bernhard Neumann, Ingo Kleiter |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 46 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |