What Researchers Did
Researchers described the case of a man who accidentally experienced extreme decompression in an industrial vacuum chamber and was later treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
What They Found
A man was accidentally exposed to an altitude greater than 22,555 m (74,000 ft) for 3-5 minutes, resulting in burst lung, massive decompression sickness, and ebulism. He remained unconscious for at least 5.5 hours after the accident. He received hyperbaric treatment using a modified U.S. Navy Table 6A and made a full clinical recovery, despite a CPK peak of 8000 units two days later indicating significant tissue damage.
What This Means for Canadian Patients
This case highlights that even severe accidental decompression injuries, such as burst lung and massive decompression sickness, can be successfully treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy. For Canadian patients experiencing similar life-threatening barotrauma or decompression sickness, prompt recompression treatment could be crucial for recovery.
Canadian Relevance
This study covers decompression sickness, which is a Health Canada-recognised indication for hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Study Limitations
As a case report, this study describes a single patient's experience, so its findings cannot be broadly applied to all cases of severe decompression injury.