Printed with permission from the authorDR. P.G. LANDSBERG MDOriginally published in “Trauma & Emergency Medicine Vol 17 No 2 July 2000in South Africa. INTRODUCTION The term blast refers to the intense sound wave created by a detonated explosive. The detonation energy of an explosion is distributed between(1) the initial shock wave(2) the velocity imparted to...

Even if you have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, chronic bronchitis, cystic fibrosis, asthma, or heart disease and need an oxygen supply, you should be able to travel so long as you consult closely with your physician and then follow the advice received.For COPD patients, whose main problem is moving air in and out...

You’ve just gotten home from a dive and you’re feeling rotten. You ache all over, are so tired you can hardly hold your head up and you have a low grade fever, nausea, headache or shivering. You might even have some shortness of breath and a productive cough. You wonder if you might not have...

PULMONARY FUNCTION Most divers tend towards an increase in vital capacity with age but the general conclusion, that divers tend to have larger vital capacities than nondivers, was not confirmed by a study of 126 saturation divers by Thorsem et al (1989). They suggest that the increase is transient and that there is a greater...

COPD and Mucous plugs Most of the risks of smoking and diving are related to long term usage–the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that smoking produces over many years. This obstruction is in the terminal airways and the emphysema that’s caused can (and does) produce air-filled dilations that can markedly increase your chances of pulmonary barotrauma...