Citation

Huang KL, Lee HC, Huang GB, Lin TF, Niu KC, Liou SH, Lin YC. Undersea Hyperb. Med. 1998; 25(2): 99-109.

Affiliation

Institute of Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1998, Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

9670435

Abstract

Construction well divers in Taiwan reportedly suffer a high prevalence of dysbaric osteonecrosis. We studied five divers working at the same construction site. We recorded their diving methods, diving depths, bottom times, work patterns, water temperatures, and heart rates. We also monitored gas bubbles in the subclavian vein in selected dives. A crude but effective hot-water system protected divers against hypothermia and allowed them to work in 24 degrees-27 degrees C water. Divers worked approximately 6.6 h a day and progressed approximately 3.0 m a day while excavating an average of 148 buckets of sand and rock each weighing 49.5 kg. The divers sustained a heart rate increase of 49%. Sixty percent of their equivalent single dive bottom times exceeded the U.S. Navy's no-decompression limits. Two cases of venous bubbles were detected, and one of these divers showed symptoms of decompression sickness. The prolonged bottom time and lack of a decompression schedule probably contributed to a risk of decompression sickness and dysbaric osteonecrosis.

Language: en