[Is lumbar disk disease an occupational disease? Scientific background, radiological findings, and medical legal interpretations].

AIM

It should be cleared whether or not the interpretation of lumbar disk disease as an occupational disease is justifiable. Which disc changes follow whole-body vibration and can they be distinguished from those which occur constitutionally while aging?

METHOD

Orthopedic meta-analysis of epidemiological and occupational studies concerning the influence of whole- body vibration.

RESULTS

Reliable studies are rare. Severe methodological problems limit the interpretation of difficult relationships. The role of age when working influences begin as well as the stress and behaviour of exposed persons away from the work-place before and while working with whole-body vibration is not known. There is no study which could be called exact according orthopedic criteria. It is therefore not evident that whole-body vibration causes lumbar disc disease.

CONCLUSIONS

After whole-body vibration similar to long term heavy lifting an earlier beginning of disk degeneration in X-ray-studies can be observed. This leads to prevalence differences, which diminish with increasing age. Deviation to the left of the prevalence curve lasts for five to ten years. Whole-body vibration leads to a topographic modification of disk degeneration of the lumbar spine. After long duration exposition an increased amount of spondylotic changes at the thoracolumbar junction and the middle half of lumbar spine can be observed (up to the upper plate of the fourth vertebral body). This can be explained by biomechanic means: whole-body vibration caused by tractor driving and similar long-term exposures leads to traction of the disks of the lower thoracic spine and the upper and middle parts of lumbar spine.