Decompression illness: clinical aspects of 5278 consecutive cases treated in a single hyperbaric unit.

Abstract

BackgroundDecompression illness (DCI) is a major concern in pressure-related activities. Due to its specific prerequisite conditions, DCI is rare in comparison with other illnesses and most physicians are inexperienced in treatment. In a fishery area in northern China, during the past decade, tens of thousands of divers engaged in seafood harvesting and thousands suffered from DCI. We established a hyperbaric facility there and treated the majority of the cases.Methods and resultsA total of 5,278 DCI cases were admitted in our facility from February 2000 through December 2010 and treated using our recompression schedules. Cutaneous abnormalities, joint and muscular pain and neurological manifestations were three most common symptoms. The initial symptom occurred within 6 h after surfacing in 98.9% of cases, with an overall median latency of 62 min. The shorter the latent time, the more serious the symptoms would be (PConclusionsDCI presents specific occurrence rules. Recompression should be administered as soon as possible and should never be abandoned irrespective of the delay. The recompression schedules used were effective and flexible for variety conditions of DCI.