What Researchers Did
Researchers reported a case of a 72-year-old woman who developed lower-extremity paralysis and abdominal pain after using a homemade hyperbaric air chamber, diagnosed with decompression sickness (DCS) and treated with emergency HBOT recompression.
What They Found
After exposure to compressed air at 3.2 ATA in a homemade chamber, the patient developed delayed paralysis and abdominal pain after eating a meal post-exposure. Emergency HBOT recompression produced full recovery. The case illustrated an unusual cause and course of DCS, explained by the authors using their Gradient Perfusion Model.
What This Means for Canadian Patients
Decompression sickness is an OHIP-covered HBOT indication in Ontario. This case highlights a safety risk from homemade or commercial hyperbaric air chambers sold to consumers in Canada. Canadian physicians should be aware that DCS can occur outside of diving -- even from lay use of personal pressure chambers.
Canadian Relevance
Decompression sickness is an OHIP-covered indication for HBOT in Ontario.
Study Limitations
This is a single case report illustrating a rare cause of DCS; the proposed Gradient Perfusion Model is a theoretical framework that has not been validated in clinical trials.