What Researchers Did
Researchers reviewed hospital records for 341 divers treated for decompression sickness to see how well a 24-hour on-call system delivered timely hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
What They Found
This retrospective study of 341 acute decompression sickness patients found that patients who were later discharged had shorter treatment delays than patients who ended up hospitalized. Median time from symptom onset to hyperbaric oxygen therapy was 251 minutes for discharged patients versus 291 minutes for hospitalized patients, a difference the study reported as statistically significant (p less than 0.001). Median time from emergency department admission to therapy was 63.4 minutes for discharged patients versus 92 minutes for hospitalized patients, a difference at the borderline of statistical significance (p equal to 0.05). Of the 341 patients, 198 arrived during duty hours and 143 during non-duty hours, and time from symptom onset to therapy did not differ significantly between these two groups (240 versus 292 minutes, p equal to 0.16).
What This Means for Canadian Patients
This study evaluates a hospital staffing and logistics system for getting divers with decompression sickness into hyperbaric oxygen therapy quickly, including outside normal working hours, rather than testing the therapy itself. Patients who ultimately needed hospital admission had experienced longer delays before treatment, which the authors point to as a reason to keep working toward faster diver transport and quicker recompression access.
Canadian Relevance
No direct Canadian connection identified.
Study Limitations
This is a single-center retrospective study, so it can show an association between treatment delay and hospitalization but cannot prove that faster treatment caused better outcomes.