[Decompression of deep divers]

For industrial saturation dives over 50 m, Heliox (He-O2) is now used routinely as respiratory gas mix. The decompression after such dives has been investigated thoroughly as well on the animal (minipig, monkeys) as on humans. Results show that for a given ascending speed, the number of bubbles detectable by the Doppler method in the bloodstream rises according to the maximal depth. The incidence of decompression accidents follows the same trend. This finding prompted us to adopt since 1979 slower decompression speeds. Moreover we modified the ascension profile, using henceforth a linear decompression in maintaining a constant speed for a given partial oxygen pressure. For our research program Hydra, we replaced in part Helium by Hydrogen in the respiratory gas mix. We were thus able to do the first hydrogen saturation decompression between 450 and 200 meters, during our Hydra V (1985) experiment. During our following diving research program Hydra VI (1986), 8 divers were decompressed under Hydreliox (H2-He-O2) mix from 500 to 300 m by eliminating hydrogen by chemical means. We used for this purpose a dehydrogenation apparatus developed by our engineering team. These decompressions took place without any difficulty and only a low number of bubbles detected. It is therefore possible to use decompression speeds for hydrogen and helium which are very similar. A confirmatory experiment on mice, where we exposed them to a 2000 m depth dive under Hydreliox (H2-He-O2), gave good results. This gives us the possibility, to perform gas exchange studies on small animals and to extrapolate the results to humans.