Delayed hepatobiliary injury in a decompression sickness patient after scuba diving: case report

We report here the first case of liver injury in a 51-year-old man following a dive to a depth of 40 meters. He presented with typical neurological symptoms affecting the lower limbs. Five days later, he experienced delayed abdominal pain, followed by rapidly progressive liver and adjacent organ injury due to air emboli in the intrahepatic portal vein. He received supportive care and hyperbaric therapy with a U.S. Navy Treatment Table 6 and recovered. Decompression sickness is a disease of protean manifestations. More information about venous gas emboli may be useful for better assessing decompression sickness. In this case, radiologic evaluation of the abdomen and the presentation of air bubbles in the portal vein in computed tomography played an essential role in diagnosing induced venous gas emboli in the liver and adjacent organs.