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At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1995

Maine's urchin diver: a survey of diving experience, medical problems, and diving-related symptoms.

A questionnaire was sent to 1,545 licensed, hand-harvesting Maine urchin divers to survey diving experience, habits, environment, medical problems, and symptoms; 323 surveys were returned. Most of the respondents were young males who considered themselves physically fit; however, 17% were over 41 and 4% considered themselves "out of shape." Most had more than one occupation. Only 2% admitted no formal training, and breadth of experience fell into a trimodal distribution. Over half dove 2-5 times daily, most often under 60 ft. "Bounce" diving without decompression stops was usual, and solo diving was frequent. Eighteen percent had chronic medical problems, and 11% chronically used medications. The majority of diving was vigorous work from boats in the cold Maine ocean, not infrequently during poor weather. Seventy-eight percent described diving-related symptoms, and 2% admitted to recompression therapy. Thus, these respondents depict themselves diving within marginal safety boundaries.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2004

[Diving accidents. Emergency treatment of serious diving accidents].

Decompression injuries are potentially life-threatening incidents mainly due to a rapid decline in ambient pressure. Decompression illness (DCI) results from the presence of gas bubbles in the blood and tissue. DCI may be classified as decompression sickness (DCS) generated from the liberation of gas bubbles following an oversaturation of tissues with inert gas and arterial gas embolism (AGE) mainly due to pulmonary barotrauma. People working under hyperbaric pressure, e.g. in a caisson for general construction under water, and scuba divers are exposed to certain risks. Diving accidents can be fatal and are often characterized by organ dysfunction, especially neurological deficits. They have become comparatively rare among professional divers and workers. However, since recreational scuba diving is gaining more and more popularity there is an increasing likelihood of severe diving accidents. Thus, emergency staff working close to areas with a high scuba diving activity, e.g. lakes or rivers, may be called more frequently to a scuba diving accident. The correct and professional emergency treatment on site, especially the immediate and continuous administration of normobaric oxygen, is decisive for the outcome of the accident victim. The definitive treatment includes rapid recompression with hyperbaric oxygen. The value of adjunctive medication, however, remains controversial.

Barotrauma↗
PubMed2004

[Health aspects of diving in ENT medicine. Part I: Diving associated diseases].

There has been a steady increase in the number of recreational scuba divers in the last years, with a growing number of diving associated diseases involving ENT medicine. Disorders of the ears, sinuses and pharynx are those most common in divers. In particular, external otitis and barotrauma of the middle ear are commonly treated by every ENT specialist. They usually do not lead to any permanent complaints. Incidents involving the cochleovestibular system are less common, but can result in deafness, vertigo and tinnitus, and therefore have to be treated appropriately. To treat diving medical disorders, the physician has to have some basic understanding of the physical laws that lead to diving incidents. This article will inform the reader of the forces that are encountered by divers, and then give details of the treatment of acute ENT diseases which result from diving incidents.

Barotrauma↗
PubMed1999

Diving and marine medicine review part II: diving diseases.

Diving is a high-risk sport. There are approximately between 1 to 3 million recreational scuba divers in the USA (with over a quarter-million learning scuba annually); there are about 1 million in Europe and over 50,000 in the United Kingdom. In this population 3-9 deaths/100,000 occur annually in the US alone, and those surviving diving injuries far exceeds this. Diving morbidity can be from near-drowning, from gas bubbles, from barotrauma or from environmental hazards. In reality, the most common cause of death in divers is drowning (60%), followed by pulmonary-related illnesses. The mean number of annual diving fatalities in the USA from 1970 to 1993 was 103.5 (sd 24.0) and the median was 106. This article will focus primarily upon pressure effects on the health of a diver. There are two principle ways pressure can affect us: by direct mechanical effects and by changing the partial pressures of inspired gases. Dysbarism is a general term used to describe pathology from altered environmental pressure, and has two main forms: barotrauma from the uncontrolled expansion of gas within gas-filled body compartments and decompression sickness from too rapid a return to atmospheric pressure after breathing air under increased pressures. Greater than 90% of the human body is either water or bone, which is incompressible; the areas directly affected by pressure changes thus are those that are filled with air or gas. These sites include the middle ear, the eustachian tube, the sinuses, the thorax, and the gastrointestinal tract. Air in these cavities is compressed when the ambient pressure rises because the pressure of inhaled air must equilibrate with the ambient pressure.

Decompression Sickness↗
PubMed1996

A diving fatality due to oxygen toxicity during a "technical" dive.

An experienced diver drowned after a generalised seizure caused by oxygen toxicity during a 19-minute "technical" dive to a depth of 47 m. He had used a 50% oxygen/nitrogen gas mixture inappropriately during the dive. This case attests the risk of oxygen toxicity from oxygen-enriched air during deep dives, the shortcomings of the diver's equipment, and the need to examine, with knowledge of diving physiology and practice, both the body and equipment.

Diving↗
PubMed1990

[Chronology of scheduling repeated dives and its importance in professional diving].

Repeated dives are frequently performed in diving practice. The value of proper chronology of sequencing repeated dives into different depths was verified by analyzing three professional tabular decompression systems. Sequencing of dives from greater to smaller depths proved to be the only correct algorithm. Such an algorithm plays an important role in preventing the development of critical supersaturation with inert gas and of potential manifestations of decompression sickness in divers.

Decompression Sickness↗
PubMed1976

The effect of hypercapnia on respiratory characteristics and diving behaviour of freely diving seals.

Three trained young seals, one harp seal, Pagophilus groenlandicus, and two hooded seals, Cystophora cristata, have been used to study the effect of hypercapnia on respiratory characteristics and diving behaviour. The seals were allowed free movements within a circular pool, while diving and respiratory behaviour were recorded. During the experiments the alveolar CO2 tension was continually recorded. There was a significant decrease in duration of dives with increasing Paco2 for all animals. Ve increased significantly with increasing Paco2. This increase was caused by more frequent surfacing rather than by a higher respiratory frequency during the breathing periods. Tidal volume increased from 3 to 43% when inspired CO2 was increased from 0.03 to 9 vol%. The seals were all found to be less sensitive to CO2 than man. A decreased sensitivity to CO2 with age is suggested from the results.

Age Factors↗
PubMed2003

Simulated human diving and heart rate: making the most of the diving response as a laboratory exercise.

Laboratory exercises in which students examine the human diving response are widely used in high school and college biology courses despite the experience of some instructors that the response is unreliably produced in the classroom. Our experience with this exercise demonstrates that the bradycardia associated with the diving response is a robust effect that can easily be measured by students without any sophisticated measurement technology. We discuss measures that maximize the success of the exercise by reducing individual variation, designing experiments that are minimally affected by change in the response over time, collecting data in appropriate time increments, and applying the most powerful statistical analysis. Emphasis is placed on pedagogical opportunities for using this exercise to teach general principles of physiology, experimental design, and data analysis. Data collected by students, background information for instructors, a discussion of the relevance of the diving reflex to humans, suggestions for additional experiments, and thought questions with sample answers are included.

Apnea↗
PubMed1977

Shallow habitat air dives I and II: human hematologic responses to compressed air saturation diving.

Two subjects each were exposed to pressure equivalents of 50 (SHAD I) and 60 (SHAD II) feet of sea water gauge (FSWG) for 30 and 28 d, respectively. Red blood cell (RBC) count, hemoglobin (Hb) content, and reticulocyte count of venous blood from divers were measured before, during, and after these exposures. RBC count of the divers decreased a maximum of 7.1% in the 50-ft dive and 10.7% in the 60-ft dive compared to surface control values. Hb content fell 7.7% and 11.1% in the 50- and 60-ft dives, respectively, when compared to nondiving subjects. Reticulocyte counts tended to increase late in the pressurization phase and during the recovery. The total month-long responses of Hgb in SHAD I, and RBC, Hgb, and reticulocyte count in SHAD II were significantly altered when compared to those of the surface control subjects. The changes in these factors were directly attributable to the month-long exposure to the total hyperbaric environment. The threshold for hematological effects of chronic exposure to compressed air would seem to lie between 50 and 60 FSWG.

Air↗
PubMed2000

Prevention of spinal cord injuries caused by diving: evaluation of the distribution and usage of a diving safety video in high schools.

OBJECTIVE: To determine and assess the distribution and use of Sudden Impact, a video designed by Think First and SportsSmart Canada, to help prevent spinal cord injury caused by careless shallow water diving among teenagers in the high risk group (15-24 years old). DESIGN: Survey of 92 public secondary schools in Toronto, Canada. SUBJECTS: The heads of the physical and health education departments of the 92 secondary public schools in the Metropolitan Toronto region. RESULTS: The response rate was 64% (59 schools), of which 76% (45) had actually received the video. Forty one schools (91%) of those that received the video reported using it. Eighty per cent of responding schools showed it to grade 11 students. Eighty per cent of schools with swimming pools used the video compared with only 42% of schools without swimming pools. CONCLUSIONS: There is a need for improvements in the system of distribution to ensure greater use of material such as this video. These may include direct distribution to principals, continuing contact with the schools, or mandatory inclusion of diving safety into the school curriculum.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1996

Diving the wreck: risk and injury in sport scuba diving.

This paper utilizes psychoanalytic theory to examine risk and injury in the case of a male deep sea diver. It examines the unconscious conflicts which appeared to fuel the diver's involvement in deep diving and to lead to a near fatal incident of decompression sickness. Particular attention is paid to the role of the diver's father in the evolution of the preoedipal and oedipal fantasies and conflicts which appear to be linked to the injury. The research is based on interviews with and fieldwork among recreational and deep divers.

Adult↗