Inert Gas Washout

DAN medics and researchers answer your questions about dive medicine.

Four divers pose underwater

COPD: Incompatible With Diving

Reduced exercise tolerance is common for those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and poses risks for diving. There can be strenuous activity involved with managing currents, swimming on the surface in choppy seas or pulling yourself and your heavy gear up a ladder and onto an unsteady boat. With COPD, shortness of breath during exertion doesn’t mean you are out of shape; it means you cannot rid your body of carbon dioxide and replace it with the oxygen needed to meet the demand of your exertion.

illustration of lungs

PFO Concerns in Dive Injury Treatment

If the diver is symptomatic and you are rendering care, then you need to treat the symptoms. Give them the highest concentration of oxygen available, and get them to definitive health care and treatment. Remember that many conditions show symptoms that may mimic DCS. Just because someone was diving does not mean they have a dive-related illness. When creating your emergency action plan, note the location of the nearest emergency room or where and how to access local emergency services.

Diving After Brain Surgery

I RECENTLY UNDERWENT BRAIN SURGERY. The surgery was successful, but now part of my skull has been replaced with mesh. My neurosurgeon is brilliant but does not know how the […]

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Autism and Diving

My son is on the autism spectrum and wants to learn how to scuba dive. Will his autism be a problem? Every autistic person is unique and must be evaluated […]

disabilities and scuba

Joint Pain and Diving

Your effort to relieve joint pain involves achieving neutral buoyancy, but that requires some physical exertion.  Additionally, nr-axSpa often progresses into ankylosing spondylitis with inflammation where tendons, ligaments, or joint capsules enter the bone, which can lead to spinal fusion and reduced mobility.

having back pain

Bipolar Disorder and Diving

YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED about Bipolar Disorder and diving, immersion pulmonary edema, and pain in teeth when diving.

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Low Platelet Count and Diving

© ISTOCK/ MPHILLIOS007 Q: I have been diagnosed with low platelets. Is it OK to dive? Before you dive, you and your doctor should consider some possible effects of having a […]

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