Ethanol and venous bubbles after decompression in humans

We exposed 34 subjects to a 48-h, 6.25-msw dive, and administered ethanol (0.5-1.0 ml pure ethanol.kg-1 body weight) orally to 11 of them immediately after direct decompression. Doppler monitoring of both precordial and subclavian sites for 24 h postsurfacing revealed that all subjects from both groups had detectable bubbles, and that there was no difference in timing or magnitude between the 2 groups. These results do not support the recently suggested role for ethanol in the treatment of decompression sickness.