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Altitude sickness, the mildest form being acute mountain sickness (AMS), is a harmful effect of high altitude, caused by rapid exposure to low amounts of oxygen at high elevation. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] People's bodies can respond to high altitude in different ways.
[67] [68] [69] In-water recompression (IWR) is the emergency treatment of decompression sickness (DCS) by sending the diver back underwater to allow the gas bubbles in the tissues, which are causing the symptoms, to resolve. It is a risky procedure that should only be used when it is not practicable to travel to the nearest recompression ...
Hypobaric decompression is the reduction in ambient pressure below the normal range of sea level atmospheric pressure. Altitude decompression is hypobaric decompression which is the natural consequence of unprotected elevation to altitude, while other forms of hypobaric decompression are due to intentional or unintentional release of pressurization of a pressure suit or pressurized compartment ...
Very high altitude = 3,500–5,500 metres (11,500–18,000 ft) Extreme altitude = above 5,500 metres (18,000 ft) Travel to each of these altitude regions can lead to medical problems, from the mild symptoms of acute mountain sickness to the potentially fatal high-altitude pulmonary edema and high-altitude cerebral edema .
Altitude decompression may occur as a decompression from saturation at a lower altitude, or as decompression from an excursion to a lower altitude, in the case of people living at high altitude, making a short duration trip to low altitude, and returning, or a person decompressing from a dive at altitude, which is a special case of diving ...
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Treatment depends on the specific disorder, but often includes oxygen therapy, which is standard first aid for most diving accidents, and is hardly ever contra-indicated for a person medically fit to dive, and hyperbaric therapy is the definitive treatment for decompression sickness.
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