What Researchers Did
Researchers reviewed the records of divers treated for decompression illness in Townsville, Australia, over a 15-year period to see what factors were linked to their outcomes.
What They Found
This retrospective review of 306 divers found that most cases were mild at the start and outcomes were generally good, with 93% of divers having no or only minor residual symptoms and no deaths among those treated. The median time from diving to symptom onset was 60 minutes, median time to pre-HBOT oxygen therapy was 4 hours, and median time to the start of HBOT was about 39 hours. Higher initial disease severity was linked to shorter times to symptom onset, oxygen therapy, and HBOT, and also to worse outcomes. The researchers reported that too few divers received HBOT with minimal delay to allow a meaningful evaluation of how delay to HBOT itself affected outcomes.
What This Means for Canadian Patients
For people who experience decompression illness, this study suggests that how severe symptoms are at the start may matter more to outcome than exactly how long treatment takes, at least in this dataset. The abstract does not give enough information to say whether getting HBOT sooner improves outcomes, since there were not enough divers treated without delay to make that comparison.
Canadian Relevance
No direct Canadian connection identified.
Study Limitations
This was a retrospective review from a single treatment center, and the small number of divers treated with minimal delay meant the study could not properly assess whether delay to HBOT itself affects outcomes.