Health disturbances of German battle tank officers: Results of an interview with 64 commanding officers of a tank battalion

Military Medicine, Sep 2003 by Sandmann, Jorg, Gurske, Stefan

In a former presentation, we reported the failure of commanding officers after a 320-km-long chain march. In this study, 64 commanding officers of a tank battalion were questioned regarding subjective health disturbances similar to the disturbances we have seen before. The soldiers indicated subjective troubles and frequency in dependence of the load duration. After 36 hours, one-half of the soldiers indicated feeling some pain, which consisted primarily of knee and back troubles. In addition to the marked disturbances after 24 hours, 50% of the soldiers indicated suffering from at least one health disturbance, and after 36 hours, 80% of the soldiers suffered at least one health disturbance. The disturbances appear faster and more frequently the longer the soldiers are on the battle tank as commanding officer. There is also a subjective increase in troubles with the years of service. Our results show that the vibration load on the battle tank can cause health disturbances. These disturbances seem to be a relevant problem of the commanding officers with no single case report.

Introduction

Vibration loads represent a relevant problem of industrial medicine. Examinations regarding the long time load on fight vehicles such as battle tanks are rare. In the context of a 320-km-long chain march of a German tank battalion during a battle exercise from the base camp to the military training area, the exercise was interrupted when seven soldiers suffered from lower leg swellings and ankle joint edema in which six soldiers had to be stationarily treated. Six patients were reservists. After 320 km, 50% of the reservists appointed as commanding officer were no longer able to do their job. The tank battalion was interviewed to ask for subjective health disturbances due to the failure of these seven commanding officers. The aim of this study was to evaluate the appearance of health disturbances on commanding officers of a modern German battle tank regarding time of practice and service.

Materials and Methods

By means of a questionnaire, 64 soldiers of a tank battalion were questioned. Pain in ankle joints, the lower leg, and other health disturbances had to be attributed toward time on the battle tank or in the function of commanding officer. Frequency of health problems also had to be indicated (never, seldom, frequently, or always). We further asked whether the symptoms have changed during the years of working on the weapon system. The answers were compared collectively and evaluated within the service time groups. All available commanding officers of the battalion were questioned; reservists did not take part in this examination. The interview should serve as basis for further examinations (Figs. 1 and 2).

Literature

The vibration load description of the fight vehicles is already known, and descriptions and systematic examinations are found.1 Injuries to soldiers of battle tanks are rare but usually traumatic.2,3 We cannot find any studies on vibration damages to the extremities. Descriptions regarding the failure of commanding officers on the battle tank Leopard II or other battle tanks due to vibration load were not accessible to us. In the German literature, we only found our case report about acute swelling of the ankle joint.4,5 But we found a Yugoslavian report on the degenerative dystrophy syndrome of the spinal cord6 and one Russian report about the radiculitis of the spinal column of tank crews.7 Reports on changes on the hands and fingers by vibration loads are more frequent. The effect of vibration loads on hands and feet was examined and mentioned in connection with Raynaud phenomenon. The secondary Raynaud syndrome is caused by local or generalized organic arteric obliterations.8 Long continuous vasoconstrictions cause the symptoms and changes.9,10 The pathomorphologic changes are thickening of the media of the arteries, a perivascular fibrosis, which are caused by direct vibration influence or circulation disturbances. The syndrome also causes disturbances of the peripheral nervous system as well as peripheral neuropathies.11,12 Local vibrations were causal in 104 of 216 patients with vibration syndrome, in 112 patients combined vibrations were causal. In 76% of the patients, disturbances of the malicious dynamics could be shown.13

Examining the vibration loads of weapon systems of the Federal Armed Forces of Germany, it could be shown that partly high judgment swinging strength can be measured (Table I). Whereas bounced seats showed weighted swinging strengths of 10.1 to 12.6 KZeq, weighted swinging strengths of 30.9 and 25.1 KZeq were measured on the platform of the MTW M113 and the singles seat standard of the weapon carrier M109. These higher exit results lead to the conclusion that the threshold value of the judgment swinging strength (KZr = 16.2) is already exceeded after 3 hours. The threshold value of the judgment swinging strength at unfavorable posture (KZr = 12.5) is reached earlier. Due to the listed energetic mean values and judgment swinging strengths, it is obvious that a great load has an effect on standing personal in the tower of a battle tank. The standard seat is not able to protect the staff from vibration (Table I). It is the judgment of the authors that the grade of load must be evaluated.1