June 2000

Vol. 15, No. 6     What's this?

More Bone Studies

from the June, 2000 issue of Undercurrent  

We’re not so pleased with the news generated by radiologist Dr. Martin Libicher from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. An avid scuba diver, he was concerned about bone necrosis, essentially dying bone that some studies have attributed to long underwater exposure. Comparing x-rays of the shoulders, hips, and knees of 18 amateur divers with those of 15 non-divers, he detected bone lesions in three-fourths of the divers and none in the control group. Average lesion size was 1.5 cm. in diameter; two-thirds of the 28 lesions detected were in the humeral head. While there might be other causes, nitrogen under pressure is a significant cause of necrosis. More research is called for, but if you’re a heavy-duty diver and have restricted movement or strange pains, especially in the joints, your dive profiles may tell you why. (Diagnostic Imaging Magazine)