Decompression Sickness - Description
Decompression sickness is a relatively uncommon disorder among divers. Divers Alert Network (DAN), a worldwide organization devoted to safe-diving research and promotion, estimates that less than 1 percent of all divers experience the condition. A study conducted on Okinawa (an island in the Pacific Ocean near Japan) of military personnel who make tens of thousands of dives each year, found an average of one case of decompression sickness for every 7,400 divers and one death for every 76,900 dives. Mild cases may even go unnoticed by divers.
- Decompression stops:
- Stops divers should make when returning to the surface to let the nitrogen in their blood dissolve safely out of their bodies. Charts developed by the U.S. Navy and other groups list the number of stops and the time to be spent at each stop.
- Hyperbaric chamber:
- A sealed compartment used to treat decompression sickness, in which pressure is first increased and then gradually decreased.
- Nitrogen:
- A tasteless, odorless gas that makes up four-fifths of Earth's atmosphere.
Decompression sickness is also known by other names, such as decompression illness and caisson (pronounced KAY-son) disease. DCS was called caisson disease in the nineteenth century because it occurred among construction workers who worked in caissons, building the supports for bridges at the bottom of lakes and rivers.
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