A case is reported that provides further evidence of an old occupational hazard, dysbaric osteonecrosis, presenting in a new population (sports scuba divers) who also appear to be at risk. It highlights the need for an accurate diagnosis of diving related illness.

During the last decade, the recreational diving community demonstrated a renewed interest in deep scuba diving. In spite of instructional agency decree, increasing numbers of divers are answering the call of the deep. Mixtures of helium, nitrogen, and oxygen were used to extend scuba diving depth beyond 800 feet. This paper explores individual motivations, physiological responses, and diver res...

We undertook a retrospective cohort study of 16 experienced recreational scuba divers and 16 matched non-diver controls to determine the prevalence of hearing loss and, if present, the likely causes of this loss. Each subject was required to be aged 55 years or less and to have no history or likelihood of hearing loss. An audiologist, blinded to each subject's group status, undertook all examin...

Pulmonary oedema of immersion is a rare complication of scuba diving. A case and brief discussion of the differential diagnosis and pathophysiology are presented. Onset of symptoms typically occurs during the dive, and is characterized by dyspnoea, cough and frothy sputum. Spontaneous recovery frequently occurs once the diver leaves the water. If investigated, the findings are of hypoxaemia and...

Middle ear barotrauma is one of the common complications of SCUBA diving representing acute otalgia, hearing loss, and bleeding. But occurrence of facial palsy is rare. Here we report a case of a 30-year-old navy diver suffered middle ear barotrauma with transient facial palsy after SCUBA diving. He felt difficulty in equalizing the pressure in middle ear with Valsalva maneuver during diving, a...

144,000 hits on Google for the two words “bleomycin” and “scuba” demonstrate the continued interest in the subject of diving after bleomycin therapy; some very conservative, and some more liberal regarding recommendations. My thanks to UHM, which published “Scuba diving post-bleomycin therapy” (UHM 2010, Vol. 37, No. 6, p. 455), documenting a recreational diver’s return to scuba after his chemo...

A scuba diver was found dead at the bottom of an undersea cave at 54.1 m water depth, with a knife protruding from his chest. Autopsy confirmed death due to both drowning and a penetrating knife wound. The incident was first considered a homicide and two suspects were arrested. Careful forensic analysis of the profile of the diver's last dive stored in the dive computer, dimensions of the under...