Bony Lesion of Divers in Korea

You, Myung Chul; Chon, Ki Chol; Ahn, Seung Joon

Abstract

Bornstein and plate (1911) and Bassoe (1913), followed by many European and American, described the radiographic appearance of avascular necrosis of the bone in compressed air worker. Divers bone lesions was described for the first time by Grutzmacher in 1941. There is not any report of information on the caisson disease and divers bone lesions in this country. Inview of these considerations, during the period from March to June 1981, 124 traditional civilian divers and 132 Naval divers, were observed in eight Korean coastal cities (In-cheon, Sam-chun-po, Sin-hae, Pu-san, Ul-san, Ku-ryung-po, joo-moon-jin and Sok-cho). For each divers, a record was made of his medical history, diving experiences and frequencies of bends attacks. The clinical examination included blood pressure, body weight, a chest radiograph and routine checks of the shoulders, hips and knees, but an X-ray examination extended to the spines, ankles, elbows when symptoms existed. The results were as follow: l. Out of 256 divers, 113 (44.2%) had bone lesions, seventy-five traditional divers (60.5%) had bone lesions out of 125 divers, but naval divers, only thirty eight (28.8%) of 132 had such lesions. 2. Divers bone lesion incidence is increased with diving experience especially over 10 years. 3. The most frequent bone lesions occured in the upper end of the humerus, the upper end of the femur, the lower end of the femur and proximal tibia. 4. The most frequent divers bone lesions in X-ray was dense areas (Bl). 5. There was a high incidence (93.1%) in man with a history of the bends and significantly relate between the sites of the bends and those of the lesions. 6. Divers bone lesions incidence was increased with the length of diving experiences, diving depth, diving time, ages and with bends experiences.