Among two groups of navy recruits undergoing training, one consisting of 500 enlisted men and another 100 newly enrolled midshipmen, 18 reported to Chinhae Naval Hospital with fatigue fractures during the period from February though September 1969. Following observations were made on these cases: 1. The incidence of fatigue facture was 1.4 percent among the enlisted men and 11 per cent among the midshipmen. 2. There were 6 cases of complete fraeture and 2 cases of incomplete fracture. In the remaining 10 cases, only periosteal reaction was evdent roentgenographically with no visible fracture line initially: fracture lines, however, became apparent on subsequent examinations in all the cases. 3. The fractures involved the femur in 4 cases and the tibia in 14 cases, a ratio of 1:3. 5 in latter s favor. 4. The site of predirection in the femur was the distal one third of the shaft, occurring in 3 of the cases. In the tibia the junction of the upper and middle thirds was most frequently affected, occurring in 10 of the cases. 5. All the cases in our series healed without any complications.
Fatigue ; Femur ; Fractures, Stress ; Humans ; Incidence ; Male ; Tibia