DEPTH Blog

The release of the 2015 edition of NFPA 99 earlier this year has been accompanied by a lot of conversation around the subject of hyperbaric facility safety. This week we have three resources that will help you to navigate through the various safety codes and standards.

Today marks the start of the annual two-day spiny lobster sport season in Florida, known as "mini-season," and it got us thinking (about more than just dinner) . . .

Sinus and internal and external ear disorders are the most common side effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO2).¹ These spaces are the cranium’s pneumatic sockets and, particularly those of the middle and inner ear, are most frequently involved in the pressure stress caused by compression and decompression maneuvers during exposure to altered pressures in the hyperbaric chamber. Barotrauma is the mechanical tissue damage produced by environmental pressure variation, and the middle ear is the most frequently involved structure in this kind of damage. According to Boyle’s law (the product of pressure and volume is a constant for a given mass of confined gas) it is easy to understand why all enclosed air cavities are more susceptible to this kind of lesion. Barotraumas can occur due to an increase or decrease of gas volume. To avoid gas volume decrease during the compression phase, the patient must perform some compensatory maneuvers aimed at inhaling and forcing gas (air or oxygen) into the nasal and sinus cavities. During decompression in the chamber or even underwater, the body’s gas expands and is expelled from cavities to the outside, usually without any active maneuver. It is essential to teach the patient about the functions of the hyperbaric chamber and the correct maneuvers of baro compensation. In this article, we will describe the main barotraumas that can occur during hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

What do the California Prison Industry Authority (CALPIA), commercial dive training, and the NOAA Diving Manual 5th Edition textbook have in common? We found the answer when we were recently introduced to Fred Johnson of CALPIA by Dan Orr, author of Scuba Diving Safety and former President and CEO of Divers Alert Network.

We recently caught up with Asser Salama, author of the new release, Deep Into Deco: The Diver's Decompression Textbook. Asser is a technical diver and instructor, is founder of Tech Diving Mag and developer of Ultimate Planner decompression planning software. He has a bachelor’s degree in engineering and a master’s degree in business administration. A software developer with an interest in decompression modeling, Salama plans to implement computational algorithms based on credible research papers to prevent some pioneering work from fading into academic obscurity. 

We recently caught up with Dr. Paul Claus, course director for Hyperbaric Medicine 2015, and asked him to share some more details on what we can expect from this first-ever conference hosted by the Mayo hyperbaric team this April 17-18, 2015 in Rochester, MN.

Recently there has been some exciting news about recent media coverage of hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

February is Heart Month and to support the movement we have teamed up with our sister company, Wound Care Education Partners, to bring you valuable resources and discounts. We invite you to learn more about cardiac issues as related to hyperbaric and undersea medicine and take advantage of these free and discounted resources on the topic.

Each of us in the field of hyperbaric medicine wants to create an exceptional practice.

The recent release of the 2015 edition of NFPA 99 has been accompanied by a lot of conversation around the subject of hyperbaric facility safety. This week we have five tools that will help you to navigate through the various safety codes and standards.

This is the final installment in our series on the published works of Dr. Eric P. Kindwall, the "Father of Hyperbaric Medicine." This week we are discussing the topic of carbon monoxide and cyanide poisoning. We invite you to dive into this topic with us and take advantage of these free goodies...

This week we continue our series on the published works of Dr. Eric P. Kindwall, the "Father of Hyperbaric Medicine," by looking at the risk factors and symptoms of oxygen toxicity. We invite you to dive into this topic with us and take advantage of these free goodies...

As promised, this month we are diving into the published works of Dr. Eric P. Kindwall, widely referred to as the "Father of Hyperbaric Medicine." This week we are looking at the physics of diving and hyperbaric pressures. We invite you to take advantage of these free goodies...

Many refer to Dr. Kindwall at the "Father of Hyperbaric Medicine," and his contributions to hyperbaric medicine are legendary. Dr. Kindwall was born on January 17, 1934 and passed away on January 18, 2012. For this reason, we find it fitting to highlight his contributions to the field of hyperbaric medicine during the month of January.

Do you worry about not having a big enough patient load at your wound care and hyperbaric medicine clinic? Do you struggle with marketing due to low budget and not enough resources?

Last week we released the first video in a new series on preventing diver fatalities. The second video in the series is now available!
In the second video, we discuss two types of common surface related injuries to divers - those that occur during the entrance to a dive site, and boat related injuries.

This month we are discussing how to prevent diver fatalities. As part of that discussion, we are launching a free three-part video series.

GULF COAST DIVER'S DAY

A startling vindication of Cunningham’s assertion that a modest increase in pressure improves health has come from a study in Israel of patients with advanced lung disease, published in the journal Chest in 1996.¹⁷ The patients who were all receiving supplemental oxygen in Jerusalem were taken down to the Dead Sea to see if they would benefit from the higher level of oxygen in the denser air. Jerusalem is 2,600 feet (800 metres) above sea level, and the Dead Sea is 1,300 feet (402 metres) below sea level, giving a total reduction in altitude of about 3,900 feet (1,200 metres). On the satellite image (see the photo above), which shows the Red Sea's Gulf of Suez and Gulf of Aqaba, the Dead Sea is the stretch of water on the right below the Mediterranean.

If a gas not containing any oxygen is breathed, consciousness is rapidly lost with no increase whatever in the rate of breathing. Haldane had witnessed the effects first-hand down in the coal mines of South Wales: “Thus it is a common experience with miners going into an atmosphere of nearly pure fire damp [methane, CH4], or climbing up so that their heads are in the gas; they drop suddenly as if they were shot.” The response to rapidly halving the oxygen level breathed is actually an increase in pulse rate and blood flow, not an increase in the rate of breathing. The increase in pulse rate had first been recorded by Glaisher and Coxwell in their epic ascent from Wolverhampton gas works; it had risen from 70 on the ground to 100 at altitude.