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Scuba Diving and underwater injuries due to changes in air pressure [click here to return to previous page]

Divers must avoid injuries caused by changes in air pressure. As water is essentially incompressible, the 'weight' of the water column above the diver causes an increase in air pressure in any compressible material (wetsuit, lungs, sinus) in proportion to depth. Pressure injuries are called barotrauma and can be quite painful, in severe cases resulting in a ruptured eardrum or damage to the sinuses. To avoid them, the diver equalizes the pressure in all air spaces with the surrounding water pressure when changing depth. The inner ear and sinus are equalized using a technique known as the "Valsalva maneuver," which involves pinching the nose and gently attempting to exhale through it. The mask is equalized by periodically exhaling through the nose. If a drysuit is worn, it too must be equalized by inflation and deflation, similar to a buoyancy compensator. 

·         Decompression sickness:  The diver must avoid the formation of gas bubbles in the body, called decompression sickness or 'the bends', by releasing the water pressure on the body slowly at the end of the dive and allowing gases trapped in the bloodstream to gradually break solution and leave the body, called "off-gassing." This is done by making safety stops or decompression stops and ascending slowly using dive computers or decompression tables for guidance. Decompression sickness must be treated promptly, typically in a recompression chamber. Administering enriched-oxygen breathing gas or pure oxygen to a decompression sickness stricken diver on the surface is a good form of first aid for decompression sickness, although fatality or permanent disability may still occur.

·         Nitrogen narcosis:  Nitrogen narcosis or inert gas narcosis is a reversible alteration in consciousness producing a state similar to alcohol intoxication in divers who breathe high pressure gas at depth. The mechanism is similar to that of nitrous oxide, or "laughing gas," administered as anesthesia. Being "narced" can impair judgement and make diving very dangerous. Narcosis starts to affect the diver at 66 feet, or 3 atmospheres of pressure. At 66 feet, Narcosis manifests itself as slight giddiness. The effects increase drastically with the increase in depth. Jacques Cousteau famously described it as the "rapture of the deep". Nitrogen narcosis occurs quickly and the symptoms typically disappear during the ascent, so that divers often fail to realize they were ever affected. It affects individual divers at varying depths and conditions, and can even vary from dive to dive under identical conditions. However, diving with trimix or heliox prevents narcosis from occurring.

Oxygen Toxicity:  Oxygen toxicity occurs when oxygen in the body exceeds a safe "partial pressure" (PPO²). In extreme cases it affects the central nervous system such as to cause a seizure, which can result in the diver spitting out his regulator and drowning. The condition is preventable provided one never exceeds the established maximum depth of a given breathing gas. For deep dives, (generally past 130 feet/39 meters) "hypoxic blends" containing a lower percentage of oxygen than atmospheric air are utilized. 

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Reference material for this scuba diving related informational article: wikipedia – the free online encyclopedia, scuba diving category

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