Underwater and Hyperbaric Medicine as a Branch of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Young Il Lee¹  Byeong Jin Ye² 

[1] Boryeong public health center, 234, Boryeongnam-ro, Nampo-myeon, Boryeong-si, Chungcheongnam-do 355-882, South Korea

[2] Department of Occupational & Environmental Medicine, College of Medicine, Kosin University, 34-1 Amnam-dong, Seo-gu, Busan 602-702, South Korea

关键词: Fitness for diving;    Toxicity of diving gases;    Decompression illness;    Barotrauma;    Occupational and environmental medicine;    Underwater and hyperbaric medicine;   

Others  :  790700
DOI  :  10.1186/2052-4374-25-39

 received in 2013-07-25, accepted in 2013-12-11,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Exposure to the underwater environment for occupational or recreational purposes is increasing. As estimated, there are around 7 million divers active worldwide and 300,000 more divers in Korea. The underwater and hyperbaric environment presents a number of risks to the diver. Injuries from these hazards include barotrauma, decompression sickness, toxic effects of hyperbaric gases, drowning, hypothermia, and dangerous marine animals. For these reasons, primary care physicians should understand diving related injuries and assessment of fitness to dive. However, most Korean physicians are unfamiliar with underwater and hyperbaric medicine (UHM) in spite of scientific and practical values.

From occupational and environmental medicine (OEM) specialist’s perspective, we believe that UHM should be a branch of OEM because OEM is an area of medicine that deals with injuries caused by physical and biological hazards, clinical toxicology, occupational diseases, and assessment of fitness to work. To extend our knowledge about UHM, this article will review and update on UHM including barotrauma, decompression illness, toxicity of diving gases and fitness for diving.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Lee and Ye; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

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