Decompression sickness cases treated with recompression therapy between 1963 and 1998 in Turkey: review of 179 cases

The purpose of this study was to review the cases diagnosed as decompression sickness (DCS) with recompression therapy treament between 1963 and 1998 in Turkey. The records of 179 cases were analyzed for age, gender, type of DCS, presenting signs and symptoms, time to onset of symptoms, time to recompression therapy, recompression table used, total number of treatments and outcomes. The diving depth on the day of injury ranged between 60 and 215 fsw (18 and 65 msw). The symptoms developed during ascent or within 10 minutes after surfacing in 47% of divers and within the first hour in 87% of the divers. The most frequent symptom was sensory loss in the extremities. The dive before the symptoms was a repetitive dive in 50% of the cases and the diagnosis was Type II DCS in 79% of these divers. Most of the divers (84%) received recompression therapy after a delay of more than 12 hours. Healing rate was 68% with the air recompression tables and 86% with the oxygen tables. Repetitive dives were associated with a higher incidence of Type II DCS than single dives (79% and 66%, respectively). The results using recompression tables with oxygen were more successful than the treatment with air tables.