OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to determine the incidence, type, outcome, and possible risk factors of diving accidents in each year of a five year period presenting from one dive centre to a large teaching hospital accident and emergency (A&E) department. METHODS All patients included in this study presented to the A&E department at a local teaching hospital in close proximity to the l...

Carotid and vertebral artery dissection are relatively frequent and risky conditions. In the last decade, different patients with extracranial (and in 1 case also intracranial) dissections associated with the practice of scuba diving were reported. The connection between the two conditions has not been fully explained so far. In the present article, we report the case of a patient presenting wi...

We tested the hypothesis that spatial arrangement and movements of bottlenose dolphins (TursiopJ truncatm) are related to the spatial arrangement of their prey. From 65 groups we: (1) classified feeding behavior of dolphins according to spatial arrangement and movements of individuals; (2) assessed spatial arrangement and location of prey from direct observations, numbers of associated seabirds...

We present diving data for four whale sharks in relation to a predictable food pulse (reef fish spawn) and an analysis of the longest continuous fine-resolution diving record for a planktivorous shark. Fine-resolution pressure data from a recovered pop-up archival satellite tag deployed for 206 days on a whale shark were analysed using the fast Fourier Transform method for frequency domain anal...

To simulate pressure effects and experience thoracic compression while breath-hold diving in a relatively safe environment, competitive breath-hold divers exhale to residual volume before diving in a swimming pool, thus compressing the chest even at depth of only 3-6 m. The study was undertaken to investigate whether such diving could cause pulmonary edema and hemoptysis. Eleven volunteer breat...

A serious diving accident can occur in recreational diving even in countries where diving is not very popular due to the fact that diving conditions there are not as great as in some tropical diving locations. The estimated number of injured divers who need recompression treatment in European hyperbaric facilities varies between 10 and 100 per year depending on the number of divers in the popul...

Clear differences between professional and recreational deep diving are disappearing, at least when taking into account the types of breathing mixtures (oxygen, nitrox, heliox, and trimix) and range of dive parameters (depth and time). Training of recreational deep divers is conducted at depths of 120-150 metres and some divers dive to 180-200 metres using the same diving techniques. Extrem...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Birt-Hogg-Dubé syndrome is an autosomal dominant disorder characterized by skin fibrofolliculomas, lung cysts, spontaneous pneumothorax and renal cell cancer due to germline folliculin (FLCN) mutations (Menko et al. in Lancet Oncol 10(12):1199-1206, 2009). The aim of this study was to evaluate the incidence of spontaneous pneumothorax in patients with BHD during or sho...

BACKGROUND Shallow-water diving injuries have devastating consequences for patients and their families, requiring intensive use of resources in both the acute and rehabilitative phases of injury. With the final clinical outcome often poor, the question is raised as to whether a target group can be identified for whom to implement a preventive programme. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the demographics,...

Exposure of the human body to ambient pressures greater than that at sea level may result in various disorders, some of which have ocular manifestations. Additionally, some eye disorders and postoperative states may be adversely affected by the underwater environment or other hyperbaric exposures. The prevalence of recreational, military, and commercial diving, as well as the medical use of hyp...