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Hi folks,
Something I have been thinking about that I haven't seen metioned
on either rec.scuba or this mailing list is hyperbaric osteonecrosis
or pressure related bone disease.
[For those not familiar with it, hyperbaric osteonecrosis is the forming
of lesions in the long bones of the body. It may occur either in the
shaft of the bones which tends not to cause symptoms, or in the head
of the bone where it can cause collapse of the bone structure leading
to arthritic like symptoms and potentially requiring an artificial
joint. It is extremely rare in recreational scuba divers. It can only
be diagnosed by long bone x-rays or maybe MRI scans (?).]
The diving medicine books I have read ("Diving Medicine for Scuba
Divers" by Carl Edmonds et al. and the section in the US Navy
Dive Manual) all mention hyperbaric osteonecrosis as an effect which
afflicts mainly professional divers and whose cause is not fully
understood.
Most texts also mention that it tends to be associated with deep
diving and has been known to occur after a single dive. Some
theories suggest that it may be the result of asymptomatic bubbling
in the bones.
A lot of recent discussion on this list has centered around very
deep diving (by recreational standards) and I am curious to know
if this problem is discussed in mix classes and whether there are any
statistics about its occurrence rates in the technical diving
community. Not that I'm trying to frighten people off technical
diving :-)
Cheers,
David.
______________________________________________________________________________
David Giddy, | Voice: +61 3 253 6388
Telecom Research Laboratories, | Fax: +61 3 253 6144
P.O. Box 249, Clayton, Victoria 3168, AUSTRALIA | Net: d.giddy@tr*.oz*.au*
X400: g=david s=giddy ou=trl o=telecom prmd=telecom006 admd=telememo c=au
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