We experienced 3 cases of characteristic
headache induced by swimming. The first case was a 51-year-old woman who suffered from a sudden attack of
throbbing headache in the parieto-temporal region, accompanied by
nausea, after 20 minutes of swimming practice in a pool. The
headache disappeared after about 3 hours of
bed rest. However, soon after she began to practice swimming in the pool a few days later,
throbbing headache in the same region recurred. Though the
headache improved upon
bed rest, dull
pain was persistent till bed time that evening. Two days later, as she squatted down with alacrity at her home, she felt intense
pain in the whole head as if struck with a hammer. She was seen at our neurological clinic the following day but was found to be neurologically normal with a blood pressure of 130/70 and a pulse rate of 78/min. Blood chemistry tests, hematology, head digital subtraction angiography, cerebral CT and
X-ray films of the cervical spine were all normal. After swimming was prohibited, the prognosis was good and the patient experienced no episode of
headache at all during the intervening period of 2 years and 5 months after the first visit. The second case was a 45-year-old man who felt
throbbing headache affecting the whole head immediately after diving in a swimming pool. The
headache improved after about 3 hours of
bed rest. One week later, an attack of similar
headache occurred immediately after a dive in the swimming pool.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)