The DAN Guide to Dive Medical Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

The DAN Guide to Dive Medical Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) is a book to which I and other dive medicine authorities have contributed. This compilation of questions and answers by the Divers Alert Network (DAN) is available through DAN or from Best Publishing Company.

Here is the table of contents:

SECTION 1 - GENERAL
• Mask squeeze
• The scuba blues: DAN examines the possibilities behind flu-like symptoms following a dive
• Hand and foot edema after a dive
• To mix or not to mix: Is there a conflict with pseudoephedrine and enriched air diving?
• A tangled question: Is there a connection between aluminum scuba tanks and Alzheimer’s
• Post-dive symptoms
• Identifying the problem: DAN offers assistance in helping the non-diving companion to determine when or if the partner needs to call DAN
• Basic instincts: DAN explores a hypothetical underwater emergency using a medical perspective
• The training perspective: Dealing with the injured or panicked diver at depth

SECTION 2 – CARDIOVASCULAR
• Cardiovascular fitness and diving
• Pacemakers and diving
• Vasovagal and carotid sinus syncopes

SECTION 3 – DECOMPRESSION SICKNESS
• Return to diving: DAN takes a look at getting back in the water after experiencing decompression illness
• Diving after flying
• The industry examines flying after diving
• Low living, high diving: DAN discusses living at a subsea level and diving above sea level

SECTION 4 – DENTAL
• Dental work and diving
• Realignment: DAN talks about diving with dental braces
• Root canal
• Toothy wisdom: DAN sinks its teeth into dental issues & diving

SECTION 5 – EAR, NOSE AND THROAT
• Before the pressure gets too great, equalize
• The trauma of barotrauma
• Unplugged: DAN examines the use of earplugs

SECTION 6 – FITNESS TO DIVE
• Exercise training and scuba diving
• Fitness issues for divers with musculoskeletal problems
• Healthy, but overweight

SECTION 7 – GASTROINTESTINAL
• Gastrointestinal issues

SECTION 8 – HEMATOLOGY (BLOOD)
• Risk of diving with hemophilia

SECTION 9 – MARINE LIFE
• I’ve been stung: What should I do?
• Taking the sting out of jellyfish envenomations
• No fish tale: If you eat fish, it’s good to know about ciguatera – before you get sick

SECTION 10 – MUSCULOSKELETAL
• Diving & the body systems
• Lupus
• Diving after bone fractures

SECTION 11 – NERVOUS SYSTEM
• CNS considerations in scuba diving

SECTION 12 – OPHTHALMOLOGY (EYES)
• High pressure ophthalmology
• Eye surgery for divers
• The eyes have it: Mask defoggers

SECTION 13 – PSYCHOLOGICAL
• Psychological issues in diving – Part I: Depression, manic depression, and drugs
• Psychological issues in diving – Part II: How anxieties and phobias can affect diving
• Psychological issues in diving – Part III: Schizophrenia, marijuana and alcohol use

SECTION 14 – RESPIRATORY (BREATHING)
• Pulmonary considerations in diving
• Breathing easy
• Tight squeeze: Discomfort in a diver’s lungs and windpipe can come from a number of irritating sources

SECTION 15 – WOMEN’S ISSUES
• DAN explores fitness and diving issues for women

SECTION 16 – DECOMPRESSION ILLNESS AND SYMPTOM RECOGNITION

INDEX

The book carries a 2003 copyright, so there are a number of topics, including mine - entitled “I’ve Been Stung: What Should I Do?” – that would benefit from updates. Divers will be the beneficiaries of many new drugs and medical devices, so it is important that information about these as they relate to diving be kept current. As we learn more about the long-term effects of surgeries and medical conditions, opinions may be modified. However, despite the advances in medicine in general and in dive medicine in particular that have occurred since 2003 and that will continue to occur, there is a wealth of information in the book, so it should be useful to anyone who is a scuba diver or who intends to take up diving.

Preview the 25th Anniversary & Annual Meeting of the Wilderness Medical Society, which will be held in Snowmass, Colorado July 25-30, 2008.

Tags: DAN, Divers Alert Network, wilderness medicine, outdoor medicine, healthline