Neurological long term consequences of deep diving.
K Todnem,Harald Nyland,H Skeidsvoll,R Svihus,P Rinck,B K Kambestad,Trond Riise,Johan A. Aarli +7 more
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TLDR
Deep diving may have a long term effect on the nervous system of the divers and neurological symptoms and findings were highly significantly correlated with exposure to deep diving, but more significantly correlated to air and saturation diving and prevalence of decompression sickness.Abstract:
Forty commercial saturation divers, mean age 34.9 (range 24-49) years, were examined one to seven years after their last deep dive (190-500 metres of seawater). Four had by then lost their divers' licence because of neurological problems. Twenty seven (68%) had been selected by neurological examination and electroencephalography before the deep dives. The control group consisted of 100 men, mean age 34.0 (range 22-48) years. The divers reported significantly more symptoms from the nervous system. Concentration difficulties and paraesthesia in feet and hands were common. They had more abnormal neurological findings by neurological examination compatible with dysfunction in the lumbar spinal cord or roots. They also had a larger proportion of abnormal electroencephalograms than the controls. The neurological symptoms and findings were highly significantly correlated with exposure to deep diving (depth included), but even more significantly correlated to air and saturation diving and prevalence of decompression sickness. Visual evoked potentials, brainstem auditory evoked potentials, and magnetic resonance imaging of the brain did not show more abnormal findings in the divers. Four (10%) divers had had episodes of cerebral dysfunction during or after the dives; two had had seizures, one had had transitory cerebral ischaemia and one had had transitory global amnesia. It is concluded that deep diving may have a long term effect on the nervous system of the divers.read more
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Relation between directly detected patent foramen ovale and ischemic brain lesions in sport divers
Markus Schwerzmann,Christian Seiler,Ernst Lipp,Raphael Guzman,Karl O. Lövblad,Martin Kraus,Nils Kucher +6 more
TL;DR: MRI and transesophageal echocardiography were used to determine the prevalence of decompression illness symptoms and ischemic brain lesions in relation to a patent foramen ovale in sport divers.
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Central nervous system lesions and cervical disc herniations in amateur divers.
TL;DR: Amateur divers with long histories of self-contained underwater breathing apparatus diving by magnetic resonance imaging are examined to suggest that amateur divers are at risk of accumulating lesions in the central nervous system and in cartilage.
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Recreational scuba diving, patent foramen ovale and their associated risks.
Markus Schwerzmann,Seiler C +1 more
TL;DR: Divers with a history of severe decompression illness to stop diving are advised, and the use of special nitrogen-oxygen mixtures decreases the probability of nitrogen narcosis and probably bubble formation, at the cost of increased risk of oxygen toxicity.
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MR imaging of the central nervous system in diving-related decompression illness:
Michael Reuter,Kay Tetzlaff,A. Hutzelmann,G. Fritsch,Steffens Jc,E. Bettinghausen,Martin Heller +6 more
TL;DR: MR readily detects cerebral damage in AGE but yields low sensitivity in DCS, which cannot rule out AGE or DCS; however, MR is useful in the examination of patients with decompression illness.
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