Decompression Sickness Symptoms

Decompression sickness, or the bends, is a disease suffered by scuba divers. Dive tables have been created to help prevent divers from getting decompression sickness and keep them safe while diving. The dive tables tell divers how deep they can go and how long they can stay at a particular depth. Even with dive tables, divers can still get decompression sickness.

Symptoms

• Divers may complain about a headache, dizziness or fatigue. A rash, pain in joints or muscular weakness may present in a diver with decompression sickness.

Additional Symptoms

• Divers with decompression sickness may also show signs of confusion or amnesia. They may cough up blood, have difficulty urinating or have paralysis. A diver collapsing or becoming unconscious is also a sign of decompression sickness.

Warnings

• Severe decompression sickness can ultimately lead to death if not treated properly. Decompression sickness normally presents immediately upon surfacing from a dive but onset can be delayed by 15 minutes to 12 hours. In rare instances, decompression sickness may not present itself until 24 hours after the dive. Divers should not fly within 24 hours of a dive due to the increased risk of delayed decompression sickness.

Treatment

• Divers with decompression sickness will be instructed to breathe pure oxygen and drink plenty of fluids. Divers with more severe decompression sickness will need treatment in a decompression chamber for a typical treatment lasting five to six hours.

Risk Factor

• Divers are at more risk when making deep or long dives. Repeated dives during a single day or multiple back-to-back dives will also increase the risk of decompression sickness.

Prevention

• Recreational divers can prevent decompression sickness by diving conservatively. Divers should have a dive-free day after two or three days of diving.