Decompression Sickness in Sport Scuba Diving.

In brief: Sport scuba diving in inland bodies of water has gained in popularity, and travelers to remote areas can fly home soon after a diving trip. Thus it is not unusual to see a case of decompression sickness in an emergency care facility, regardless of its location. Symptoms of decompression sickness may occur minutes or hours after diving with compressed gas. They include marked fatigue, pruritic mottled skin lesions, pain (joints, back, abdomen), weakness or paralysis of isolated or regional muscle groups, paresthesia, urinary retention, loss of anal sphincter control, dyspnea, coughing, vertigo, and substernal pain. Most patients respond quickly to prompt treatment in hyperbaric chambers, and the symptoms resolve completely.