dive medicine

What is the Common Risk Faced by Recreation, Technical, and Breath Hold Divers?

Immersion pulmonary edema (IPE) continues to be a central focus of dive medicine researchers and clinicians. Late last week, at the 2017 EUBS Annual Meeting, four scientists presented five different studies on the subject.

It appears that IPE is significantly more common than previously reported. In a two year period (2014-16) one hyperbaric facility in Cozumel diagnosed 40 cases of IPE among recreational scuba divers­1. On the other side of the world, there were 21 cases of IPE reported among French military rebreather divers in a six year period2. (more…)

Skin Mottling after Diving May Be Result of Brain Lesions Caused by Gas Bubbles

Cutaneous decompression sickness (DCS), or “skin bends,” most often manifests as skin mottling on the torso, upper arms and buttocks to various degrees. An associated marbled look to the skin is sometimes referred to as cutis marmorata. While cutaneous DCS is most likely related to gas occurring in body — after decompression or due to lung barotrauma or some medical procedures — there generally is no accepted explanation how the free gas is related to skin changes.

Possible explanations include the occurrence of gas bubbles in subcutaneous tissues, occlusion of subcutaneous arteries with circulating bubbles bypassing the lung filter (as with a patent foramen ovale), inflammatory reaction bubbles present locally or bubbles causing endothelial injury at remote locations.

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Bubble Production in Divers Who Have Had DCS

Venous gas embolism (VGE), or bubbles, in divers postdive indicates that their decompression was too fast, their bodies became supersaturated and free gas emerged from solution in tissues. The occurrence of free gas is considered a necessary condition for decompression sickness (DCS), which can happen even without VGE. However, the presence of VGE increases the number and types of possible harms to the body and thus the probability of DCS.

A number of studies indicate variability in proneness to DCS among divers; however, the question of whether divers who have suffered DCS produce bubbles more readily in general has not been answered yet. To answer this question, researchers would need to identify “bubblers” and “nonbubblers” and observe the outcomes of their dives over some period of time, which would require a lot of resources and time.
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Scuba diving and Pregnancy: Is Another Study Justified?

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The possible effects of scuba diving on pregnancy have been a concern since the sport began. The main concern is that decompression may cause occurrence of free gas that could hurt the fetus. Indeed, it was shown in sheep that circulating bubbles do occur in maternal and fetal circulation, even when the mother does not display signs of decompression sickness. As such, the general advisement issued is not to dive while pregnant.

Unfortunately, most women become aware of their condition weeks or months after conception and some after they have already dived. This raises concerns about possible damage to their fetus and women often seek counseling after the fact. In an era of evidence-based medicine, it does not suffice to offer good wishes. However, the evidence about safety of diving while pregnant or damaging effects on outcome of pregnancy is not available.

In the past  several survey-based studies queried about exposure and outcome, but most came up short of conclusions, because, wisely, most women stop diving when they learn they are pregnant. Thus, there are few reported cases of pregnancy exposed to diving and the exposures are limited to a small number of dives. This further limits the ability to detect a possible small increase in frequency of adverse outcomes above the baseline rates. Thus, it seems that another survey is justified if it could provide a sufficient sample size to achieve reliable conclusions.

Dr. David Baud, MD, PhD, specialist in obstetrics, gynecology and materno-fetal medicine from Lausanne, Switzerland, proposed an international survey that could reach enough women who had inadvertently dived in pregnancy to yield sufficient data to detect even small increases in rates of possible adverse events.  The study is supported by International DAN organizations: DAN Europe, DAN America, DAN Southern Africa and hopefully by others. Researchers from these organizations are co-investigators on the study, but most the important support will be that of female divers from all over the world.

If you are a female diver, regardless if you are currently pregnant or not, please click and complete the survey. The survey is available in English and in several other languages. It is anonymous and it takes up to 10 minutes to complete it.

For more information about pregnancy and diving read:

Scuba diving and pregnancy: Can we determine safe limits?

The Risks of Diving While Pregnant

Post written by: Petar Denoble, MD, D.Sc.