Type II Decompression Illness after Diving Seven Meters

Youichi Yanagawa^1, , Ken-ichi Muramatsu¹, Hiroki Nagasawa¹, Ikuto Takeuchi¹ and Kei Jitsuiki¹

¹Department of Acute Critical Care Medicine, Shizuoka Hospital, Juntendo University, Japan

Cite this paper

Youichi Yanagawa, Ken-ichi Muramatsu, Hiroki Nagasawa, Ikuto Takeuchi and Kei Jitsuiki. Type II Decompression Illness after Diving Seven Meters. American Journal of Medical Case Reports. 2022; 10(3):48-50. doi: 10.12691/AJMCR-10-3-2

Abstract

A 30-year-old man went occupational diving 2 times. The first was a 20-min dive at a depth of 3.3 m, and the second was a 10-min dive at a depth of 7.7 m. During the second dive, he felt chest pain and suddenly surfaced. After reaching the surface, he felt dyspnea and headache. He also felt dysesthesia in every extremity during transportation. Upon arrival, he was in hypertensive bradycardia state. A physical study demonstrated no remarkable findings except for his complaints. His electrocardiogram, chest roentgen, whole-body computed tomography, and blood test findings were negative. He was diagnosed with decompression illness (DCI) and transported to another hospital for hyperbaric oxygen therapy. During his transfer, he showed quadriparesis, which was compatible with decompression sickness type II. He was treated as outlined in United States Navy Treatment Table 6. He ultimately obtained a complete recovery and was reinstated. We reported a concrete case of DCI after a shallow dive. DCI should be strongly considered when divers report feeling unwell after diving.

Keywords

decompression illness, diagnosis, shallow water

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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