HWN Suggests

Environmental Physiology and Diving Medicine

Man’s experience and exploration of the underwater environment has been recorded from ancient times and today encompasses large sections of the population for sport enjoyment, recreational and commercial purpose, as well as military strategic goals. Knowledge, respect and maintenance of the underwater world is an essential development for our future and the knowledge acquired over the last few dozen years will change rapidly in the near future with plans to establish secure habitats with specific long-term goals of exploration, maintenance and survival.

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Featured

 Diving Medicine in the Abstract

Although diving/hyperbaric medicine is a divergent field compared with Pollock’s, newcomers can feel similar when they encounter a barrage of acronyms and basic diving medicine physiology. Speckled within the diving and hyperbaric milieu are miliary terms and submersive human physiology facts.

 The Future of Dive Medicine

We have asked two leading researchers in dive medicine for their opinions on the direction in which dive medicine is headed and what advances they think, or hope, we might see in the next 30 to 40 years.

Articles of Interest

Dive Medicine

Dive medicine involves the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of conditions caused by humans entering the undersea environment. It includes the effects on the body of pressure on gases, the diagnosis and treatment of conditions caused by marine hazards, and how relationships of a diver’s fitness to dive affect a diver’s safety. Hyperbaric medicine is a corollary field associated with diving, since recompression in a hyperbaric chamber is used as a treatment for two of the most significant diving related illnesses, and arterial gas embolism.

Diving into Academic Hyperbaric Medicine

If you look through an emergency medicine textbook the hyperbaric medicine chapter will be towards the back and will be rather brief. It’s not an area of focus of a core emergency medicine curriculum although it’s part of it.

Practicing 'Extreme Medicine,' From Deep Sea To Outer Space

Dr. Kevin Fong explores how humans survive extremes of heat, cold, outer space and deep sea. He compares the exploration of medicine with the "explorers of the 20th century and every age before them."

The View From: White Plains; Back on Track, Hyperbaric Medicine Cures More Than Bends

"There are certain conditions for which hyperbaric treatment is the treatment of choice," he said. "Decompression illness and smoke inhalation, for example. Back in the 1960's and 70's, it got a bad reputation because it was being used for things that didn't work out -- organic brain syndrome in the elderly, for example. More recently, hyperbaric medicine has been put back on track."

Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine

The history of hyperbaric medicine is long and storied. The first use of pressurized gas to treat medical disorders was recorded in 1662 by Henshaw. Decompression sickness, also known as caisson disease or “the bends,” was first described during the building of the Eads Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge in the 1860s. In the 1930s and 1940s, Behnke pioneered the first dive tables allowing for longer dives with increased safety for the diver. This foundation would be the beginning of what we now understand as hyperbaric medicine.

What Will 100 Days Underwater Do to the Human Body? This Man Is Finding Out

Joseph Dituri is five weeks into his underwater experiment. We checked in to see how it’s going.

‘Dr Deep Sea’ emerges into sunlight after 100 days living underwater

Joseph Dituri, 55, spent a record-breaking time in structure 30ft below surface of Key Largo lagoon to study medical effects

Resources

Undersea Hyperbaric Medicine Section

In addition to being a forum to discuss different hyperbaric treatment modalities, the Section of Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine works to develop training sessions, offer exposure to the field, and stimulate research.

Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society

The Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) is an international non-profit organization serving members from more than 35 countries. The UHMS is the primary source of scientific information for diving and hyperbaric medicine physiology worldwide.

Canadian Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Association

Promoting excellence in Hyperbaric and diving medicine through leadership in education, promotion of best practices and advocacy for our patients.

Diver

Diver Medicine archives...

Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine.Journal

Diving and Hyperbaric Medicine is published quarterly by the South Pacific Medicine Underwater Society and the European Underwater and Baromedical Society.

International Board of Undersea Medicine

The International Board of Undersea Medicine (IBUM) exists to provide quality education to the diving, hyperbaric, and medical communities. We offer training and credentials consistent with the current standard of care in the field of diving and hyperbaric medicine.

Undersea Medicine Canada

The non-profit educational organization ‘Undersea Medicine Canada’ (UMC) was established in 2016 to offer courses in diving and hyperbaric medicine designed for Canadian physicians. Although physicians are the target audience, hyperbaric nurses and certified hyperbaric technologists (CHTs) will also benefit from these courses