Dysbarism
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Effects of air pressure and water pressure | |
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Specialty | Emergency medicine, diving medicine |
Dysbarism refers to medical conditions resulting from changes in ambient pressure.[1] Various activities are associated with pressure changes. Underwater diving is the most frequently cited example, but pressure changes also affect people who work in other pressurized environments (for example, caisson workers), and people who move between different altitudes.
Ambient pressure
Ambient pressure is the pressure in the water around the diver (or the air, with caisson workers etc.). As a diver descends, the ambient pressure increases. At 10 meters (33 feet) in salt water, it is twice the normal pressure than that at the surface. At 40 meters (a common recommended limit for recreational diving) it is 5 times the pressure than at sea level.
Pressure decreases as we rise above sea level, but less dramatically. At 3000 feet altitude (almost 1000 meters), the ambient pressure is almost 90% of sea level pressure. Ambient pressure does not drop to 50% of sea level pressure until 20,000 feet or 6,000 meters altitude.
Effects of pressure on the body
Direct effects on tissues
This is not of practical importance, because the body is mostly composed of barely compressible materials such as water. People often wonder whether scuba divers feel their body being crushed by the pressure, but divers would have to reach depths of thousands of feet before their flesh began to suffer significant compression.
Gas filled spaces
Gas is very compressible. Humans have many air spaces:
Dissolved gas
A percentage of the gas we breathe (air) is always dissolved in our blood, like the gas dissolved in a
Types of dysbarism
Different types of illness result from increases in pressure (for example, descent during an underwater dive, descent during a plane flight), versus decreases in pressure (for example, coming up from a caisson, or ascending a mountain). Dysbarism comprises several types of illness:[1]
Decompression sickness (DCS)
Decompression sickness, also called caisson workers' disease and the bends, is the most well-known complication of scuba diving. It occurs as divers ascend, and often from ascending too fast or without doing
Nitrogen narcosis
Nitrogen narcosis is also called “L’ivresse des grandes profondeurs” or "rapture of the deep". Nitrogen comprises 79% of the air, but at surface pressures it has no sedating effect. At greater depths, however, nitrogen affects the brain in the same way as
High pressure nervous syndrome (HPNS)
Barotrauma
Barotrauma is injury caused by pressure effects on gas spaces. This may occur during ascent or descent. The ears are the most commonly affected body part. The most serious injury is lung barotrauma, which can result in
Arterial gas embolism (AGE)
Arterial gas embolism (AGE) is a complication of lung barotrauma of ascent. It occurs when breathing gas is introduced to the circulation on the arterial side via lung over-pressure trauma. AGE can present in similar ways to arterial blockages seen in other medical situations. Affected people may suffer strokes, with paralysis or numbness down one side; they may suffer heart attacks; they may suffer pulmonary embolism with shortness of breath and chest pain. It is often impossible to distinguish AGE from DCS, but luckily it is rarely necessary for physicians to be able to distinguish between the two, as treatment is the same. Sometimes AGE and DCS are lumped into a single entity,
Classification
In addition to the foregoing, dysbarism is sometimes classified according to the source of the excess gas, with "trapped gas" dysbarism referring to the expansion of pockets that were already in a gaseous state in the body, and "evolved gas" dysbarism referring to gasses (primarily nitrogen or helium) dissolved in the body coming out of solution to form gas bubbles.[2]
See also
- List of diving hazards and precautions – Hazards associated with underwater diving
- Dysbaric osteonecrosis – Ischemic bone disease caused by decompression bubbles
References
- ^ PMID 8289154.
- ISBN 0-471-49079-2. Archivedfrom the original on 9 May 2019.