Medical assessment of fitness to dive. Part I

Krzyżak, Jarosław; Korzeniewski, Krzysztof

doi:10.5603/mh.2021.0005

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 8 publications

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“…Once an anomaly is found, it will not only threaten the safety of the diver and affect their confidence but also disqualify a diver from diving. Therefore, physicians should look for abnormalities and make a clear judgment about the diver’s fitness to dive ( 2 , 3 ). When no guideline is used to specify or regulate a special disease that may threaten diving safety, the judgment can be challenging for the reason that a diver’s hobby or career should not be abruptly ruined, but they should also not be exposed to a high risk of diving accidents.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Case report: tracheobronchial diverticulum, a potential risk for diving?

Qing,

Wang,

Zhang

et al. 2024

Front. Med.

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Tracheobronchial diverticulum (TBD) is an asymptomatic, benign cystic lesion outside the lumen of the trachea and bronchus. This is the first report case of a SCUBA (self contained underwater breathing apparatus) diver diagnosed with TBD, which is a potential risk to diving. No literature or guideline is available so far on the diving fitness for patients with congenital or acquired TBD condition. A healthy 26-year-old male professional diver has records of SCUBA diving up to a depth of 40 meters sea water. He did not have any diving-related injuries or symptoms during his career and had no history of smoking, drinking, or other special illnesses except for a COVID-19 infection. A tracheal diverticulum was found accidentally by computed tomography (CT), but its communication with the trachea was not clear initially. Therefore, high-resolution CT and electronic bronchoscopy were done to clarify the situation of the diverticulum and identify the diving risk. High-resolution CT showed a possible opening in the diverticulum, but this was not seen under electronic bronchoscopy. Although a potential opening was shown in high-resolution CT, the lack of visual bronchoscopic evidence made it likely to be a dead cavity. As there is a higher theoretical risk of barotrauma during decompression, leading to pneumomediastinum, hemorrhage, or arterial gas embolism, the current clinical consensus is that air-containing tissue should be regarded as a relative contraindication for diving. Overall, it is recommended that the diver should dive carefully and avoid ascending too rapidly.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%