What Researchers Did
Researchers analyzed 586 experimental air or nitrogen-based saturation dives to estimate the risk of decompression sickness (DCS) for direct ascents from depth to the sea surface in humans saturated with hyperbaric nitrogen.
What They Found
No decompression sickness occurred in shallow saturation dives between 12.0 and 20.5 feet of seawater, gauge (fswg). However, the incidence of DCS rose abruptly for dives deeper than 20.5 fswg, reaching 27% at 30 fswg, indicating a threshold for clinical DCS. A model incorporating a threshold predicted these observations more accurately than a no-threshold model, particularly for exposures of 33 fswg or less.
Canadian Relevance
There is no direct Canadian connection mentioned in the study metadata or abstract.
Study Limitations
The study acknowledges a lack of human data for deeper dives, meaning extrapolations for such depths can differ significantly between models.