Compressed Air Illness: From 2 Different Sources
Also known as caisson disease, this affects workers operating in compressed-air environments, such as underwater divers and workers in caissons (such as an ammunition wagon, a chest of explosive materials, or a strong case for keeping out the water while the foundations of a bridge are being built; derived from the French caisse, meaning case or chest). Its chief symptoms are pains in the joints and limbs (bends); pain in the stomach; headache and dizziness; and paralysis. Sudden death may occur. The condition is caused by the accumulation of bubbles of nitrogen in di?erent parts of the body, usually because of too-rapid decompression when the worker returns to normal atmospheric presure – a change that must be made gradually.
(caisson disease) a syndrome occurring in people working under high pressure in diving bells or at great depths with breathing apparatus. On return to normal atmospheric pressure nitrogen dissolved in the bloodstream expands to form bubbles, causing pain (the bends) and blocking the circulation in small blood vessels in the brain and elsewhere (decompression sickness). Pain, paralysis, and other features may be eliminated by returning the victim to a higher atmospheric pressure and reducing this gradually, so causing the bubbles to redissolve. Chronic compressed air illness may cause damage to the bones (see osteonecrosis), heart, and lungs.
All forms of illness in which psychological, emotional or behavioural disturbances are the dominating feature. The term is relative and variable in different cultures, schools of thought and definitions. It includes a wide range of types and severities.... mental illness
A person’s own perceptions, experience and evaluation of a disease or condition, or how he or she feels. For example, an individual may feel pain, discomfort, weakness, depression or anxiety, but a disease may or may not be present.... illness
The personal cost of acute or chronic disease. The cost to the patient may be an economic, social or psychological cost or loss to himself, his family or community. The cost of illness may be reflected in absenteeism, productivity, response to treatment, peace of mind, quality of life, etc. It differs from health care costs in that this concept is restricted to the cost of providing services related to the delivery of health care, rather than the impact on the personal life of the patient. See “burden of disease”.... cost of illness
A disease which is characterized by a single or repeated episode of relatively rapid onset and short duration from which the patient usually returns to his/her normal or previous state or level of activity. An acute episode of a chronic disease (for example, an episode of diabetic coma in a patient with diabetes) is often treated as an acute disease.... acute disease / illness
A determination of the economic impact of a disease or health condition, including treatment costs.... cost-of-illness analysis
An illness suffered by divers when diving too deep, or too long and characterised bynitrogen bubbles forming in the tissues of the body. This may cause a multitude of symptoms although joint pains are those most-commonly encountered. Confusion may be caused in divers that have suffered an Irukandji sting as the symptoms have some similarities. See also, cerebral gas embolism.... decompression illness (dci)
See MUNCHAUSEN’S SYNDROME.... fabricated and induced illness
Negative effect resulting from a medical treatment.... iatrogenic illness (or injury)
A risk prediction system to correlate the “seriousness” of a disease in a particular person with the statistically “expected” outcome.... severity of illness
An illness for which there is no known cure.... terminal illness
a US term for a health condition that severely affects an individual’s physical, mental, social, or economic wellbeing, lasts for an extended period of time, and (usually) requires very expensive treatment. In practice, the definition varies from government agency to agency and from employer to employer. The definition may focus specifically on the economic burden, the time lost from work, the seriousness of the condition, or a combination of these.... catastrophic illness
see hypochondria.... illness anxiety disorder
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