Techniques and procedures for safe decompression of divers
Divers using the anchor cable as an aid to depth control during a decompression stop during ascent.
To prevent or minimize decompression sickness, divers must properly plan and monitor decompression. Divers follow a decompression model to safely allow the release of excess inert gases dissolved in their body tissues, which accommodated as a result of breathing at ambient pressures greater than surface atmospheric pressure. Decompression models take into account variables such as depth and time of dive, breathing gasses, altitude, and equipment to develop appropriate procedures for safe ascent.
Decompression may be continuous or staged, where the ascent is interrupted by stops at regular depth intervals, but the entire ascent is part of the decompression, and ascent rate can be critical to harmless elimination of inert gas. What is commonly known as no-decompression diving, or more accurately no-stop decompression, relies on limiting ascent rate for avoidance of excessive bubble formation. Staged decompression may include deep stops depending on the theoretical model used for calculating the ascent schedule. Omission of decompression theoretically required for a dive profile exposes the diver to significantly higher risk of symptomatic decompression sickness, and in severe cases, serious injury or death. The risk is related to the severity of exposure and the level of supersaturation of tissues in the diver. Procedures for emergency management of omitted decompression and symptomatic decompression sickness have been published. These procedures are generally effective, but vary in effectiveness from case to case.
The procedures used for decompression depend on the mode of diving, the available equipment, the site and environment, and the actual dive profile. Standardized procedures have been developed which provide an acceptable level of risk in the circumstances for which they are appropriate. Different sets of procedures are used by commercial, military, scientific and recreational divers, though there is considerable overlap where similar equipment is used, and some concepts are common to all decompression procedures. In particular, all types of surface oriented diving benefited significantly from the acceptance of personal dive computers in the 1990s, which facilitated decompression practice and allowed more complex dive profiles at acceptable levels of risk.
and 24 Related for: Decompression practice information
To prevent or minimize decompression sickness, divers must properly plan and monitor decompression. Divers follow a decompression model to safely allow...
Hypobaric decompression is the reduction in ambient pressure below the normal range of sea level atmospheric pressure. Altitude decompression is hypobaric...
ambient pressures. Decompression obligation for a given dive profile must be calculated and monitored to ensure that the risk of decompression sickness is controlled...
bubbles inside the body tissues during decompression. DCS most commonly occurs during or soon after a decompression ascent from underwater diving, but can...
or fail to pressurize at all. Such decompression may be classed as explosive, rapid, or slow: Explosive decompression (ED) is violent and too fast for air...
Physiology of decompression – The physiological basis for decompression theory and practiceDecompression models: Bühlmann decompression algorithm – Mathematical...
conservative decompression schedule the risk of decompression sickness is significantly reduced, and the total time spent decompressing is minimised....
Ratio decompression (usually referred to in abbreviated form as ratio deco) is a technique for calculating decompression schedules for scuba divers engaged...
of decompression sickness in 5.3% of cases by the U.S. Navy as reported by Powell, 2008 including isobaric decompression sickness. Decompression sickness...
Most of the time surgery is eventually required and may include core decompression, osteotomy, bone grafts, or joint replacement. About 15,000 cases occur...
diver should practice precise buoyancy control when the risk of decompression sickness due to depth variation violating the decompression ceiling is low...
type of short, optional deep decompression stop performed by scuba divers at depths well below the first decompression stop mandated by a conventional...
be decompression dives. The distinction is between dives for which there is no obligatory decompression stop, and dives for which the decompression planning...
A dive computer, personal decompression computer or decompression meter is a device used by an underwater diver to measure the elapsed time and depth...
was the site of several serious incidents, most notably an explosive decompression in 1983 that killed four divers and one dive tender, as well as badly...
and decompression status Decompression obligation – Physiological requirement for decompression to reduce risk of injury Decompressionpractice – Techniques...
during a decompression stop. Alternative means of marking one's position while doing decompression stops are shot-lines, uplines and decompression trapezes...
remaining decompression as surface decompression either after an ambient pressure ascent or after transfer under pressure from a dry bell. (decompression chambers)...
models followed. The pathophysiology of decompression sickness is not yet fully understood, but decompressionpractice has reached a stage where the risk is...
Scott Haldane's decompression procedures and the associated tables developed in the early 1900s greatly reduced the incidence of decompression sickness, but...
volume involved already exists prior to decompression. Barotrama can occur during both compression and decompression events. Barotrauma generally manifests...
usually obvious and may present quite differently from decompression sickness. Decompression sickness: Inert gas bubbles form in the bloodstream if the...
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