In this Sunday, April 10, 2016 photo, Brandon Hixenbaugh, of St. Clairsville, Ohio, blows vapor as he stops at the Pinup Evolution Vapors booth at the Pittsburgh-area Vape Showcase at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, in Downtown Pittsburgh. Vaping enthusiasts are pressuring state lawmakers to extinguish a hefty new tax on e-cigarette products they say already has spurred the shuttering of 60 small businesses across Pennsylvania. (Stephanie Strasburg /Pittsburgh Tribune-Review via AP)
In this Sunday, April 10, 2016 photo, Brandon Hixenbaugh, of St. Clairsville, Ohio, blows vapor as he stops at the Pinup Evolution Vapors booth at the Pittsburgh-area Vape Showcase at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, in Downtown Pittsburgh. Vaping enthusiasts are pressuring state lawmakers to extinguish a hefty new tax on e-cigarette products they say already has spurred the shuttering of 60 small businesses across Pennsylvania. (Stephanie Strasburg /Pittsburgh Tribune-Review via AP) Credit: Stephanie Strasburg

It was an injury unlike any Dr. Elisha Brownson had seen — a young man whose teeth were blown out when his electronic cigarette exploded in his mouth. His injuries were so severe he was admitted to the trauma intensive care unit.

“I had never heard of an injury mechanism like this before,” said Brownson, a surgeon who specializes in burn patients. The injuries “left a gruesome impression on me.”

Unfortunately, this wasn’t an isolated case. More exploding vaping device victims followed, until Brownson and her staff at the University of Washington Medicine Regional Burn Center in Seattle saw about two such patients each month.

Fifteen of those cases are described in the New England Journal of Medicine. All injuries were from using electronic cigarettes or personal vaporizers, which rely on a lithium-ion battery to heat a liquid that is inhaled in an aerosol form.

Though lithium-ion batteries are generally safe, some can overheat. When that happens, they can explode. That’s what happened to the 15 patients who were seen in the UW burn center between October 2015 and June 2016.

Among these patients, 80 percent suffered flame burns and 33 percent received chemical burns from the alkali elements in the exploding batteries. In addition to burns, 27 percent of the victims suffered blast injuries.

The most common site of injury was the groin or thigh (53 percent of cases), followed by the hands (33 percent of cases) and the face (20 percent of cases), according to the report.

Some of the injuries have been disfiguring, and some have affected victims’ physical function. In addition to losing teeth, patients have lost portions of their soft tissue (a category that includes skin, ligaments, fat and tendons).

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has recognized e-cigarettes and other vaping devices as tobacco products that fall under its jurisdiction. However, it’s not clear whether the agency intends to regulate the batteries in the devices.

“E-cigarettes are a public safety concern that demands increased regulation as well as design changes to improve safety,” they wrote.