The risk of decompression illness in breath-hold divers: a systematic review.

INTRODUCTION

Breath-hold (BH) diving has known risks, for example drowning, pulmonary oedema of immersion and barotrauma. There is also the risk of decompression illness (DCI) from decompression sickness (DCS) and/or arterial gas embolism (AGE). The first report on DCS in repetitive freediving was published in 1958 and from then there have been multiple case reports and a few studies but no prior systematic review or meta-analysis.

METHODS

We undertook a systematic literature review to identify articles available from PubMed and Google Scholar concerning breath-hold diving and DCI up to August 2021.

RESULTS

The present study identified 17 articles (14 case reports, three experimental studies) covering 44 incidences of DCI following BH diving.

CONCLUSIONS

This review found that the literature supports both DCS and AGE as potential mechanisms for DCI in BH divers; both should be considered a risk for this cohort of divers, just as for those breathing compressed gas while underwater.