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CMDR Keener writes:
>
> In my mind, it seems that most of the incidents of DCS related by
> the people involved in this mailing list showed less severe symptoms than
> this diver did. Also, if a number of multiple shallow dives were made, and
> the water was warm (ie. little temperature stress as long as the divers
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> didn't overheat), wouldn't it seem that this was a case of embolism?
The confusingly indistinct boundaries between "Type II DCS" and "AGE"
have led the hyperbaric medical community to stop using those names.
See the latest AquaCorps ("Bent", No. 4?) for a good article on why
[Decompression Illness + adjectives] is now the proper terminology.
I'd like to go on (as long as I'm up on the soapbox :) and make what I
consider an interesting point: warm water is not necessarily safer
than cold water with respect to DCI!
A study which is cited heavily in PADI's dive computer book is one by
Barnard & Leitch, in which they found that a particular series of
repetitive deep dives were able to be performed safely in cold water
but not as safely in warm water. I should note that the PADI book
grossly misinterprets the findings of this paper!
The profiles were roughly:
147'/45m for 5 min
55 min surface interval
147'/45m for 5 min
55 min surface interval
147'/45m for 5 min
Repeat 12 times (!) over a period of days. (Paper was unclear on how
this aspect was controlled.) "Warm Water" temp was ~19C. Cold water
temp not specified.
Quoting from the paper:
"The cold water group completed their dives with compelte freedom from
decomrpession sickness. The warm water group stopped the experiment
when the diver ding the 10th 147-ft (45m) triple dive got a limb-bend
after his second dive. By this state otehr divers had begun to report
transient aches at the end of the triple dives. The afflicted diver
had completed four triple dives in the preceding 7 days."
Just thought I'd point out how unclear the correlation between water
temp and DCI incidence is, even in a controlled study. The authors
suggested acclimitization as the cause.
Cheers,
David Story NAUI AI Z9588, PADI DM 43922, EMT
story@be*.wp*.sg*.co* Every dive is a decompression dive.
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