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Korean Journal of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery 1994;37(3): 430-6. |
Otologic Changes in Professional Female Sea-water Skin Divers |
Chong Sun Kim, MD, and Ha-Won Jung, MD |
Department of Otolaryngology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea |
해녀에서의 이과학적인 변화 |
김종선 · 정하원 |
서울대학교 의과대학 이비인후과학교실 |
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ABSTRACT |
It has been known that the permanent sensorineural hearing loss is an occupational hazard of professional divers. The relevant history taking and pure tone audiographic tests were performed on 172 professional female sea-water divers in Cheju-island area. All divers had experienced excessive exposure to dysbaric conditions and they complained hearing loss in 45%, tinnitus in 35% and vertigo in 35% of total subjects. Exostosis of the external auditory canal was observed in 82 ears(25% of total subjects). Pure tone audiographic results of 165 subjects out of the 172 subjects were analyzed. Three cases of chronic otitis media and 4 cases of Meniere's syndrome were excluded from this study. A close correlation exists between hearing impairment and age or diving period. The hearing threshold was elevated in high frequencies in all age groups as compared with the normality hearing threshold curves reportd by American National Standards Institute(1969). With increasing depth of diving, the elevation of threshold of hearing analyzed by SAS was statistically significant in the age group of 40-49 year old(p<0.1). Our results indicated that professional divers, especially deep divers had more rapid deterioration of high frequency hearing than normal population.
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Keywords:
BarotraumaㆍDiverㆍExostosisㆍSensorineural hearing loss. |
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