Report on Decompression Illness, Diving Fatalities - Divers Alert ...

The pre-flight surface interval (PFSI, the time elapsed between theend of the last dive and the secondary decompression stress of postdivealtitude exposure) was available for 180 PDE divers. Mostdivers abstained from diving after noon on the last day of theirvacation trip and flew home the next morning, at least 20 hours afterthe last dive ended. Our data indicate that this was a practice in 93percent of cases. The shortest PFSI of six hours was reported by onediver (0.5 percent), 25 divers (13.5 percent) reported waitingbetween 14 and 24 hours, and 154 divers (86 percent) waited 24 to96 hours (Figure 86). There were no DCI-related symptoms recordedfrom the 515 divers who reported altitude exposure within 48hours of diving.Fig 86Pre-flightsurface interval(N=180).Percent of PDE Divers1009080706050403020Surface Interval Before Flight (N = 180)1000 20 40 60 80 100Hours4.8 Comparisons Within PDE SubgroupsPDE data from four subgroups representing differing exposure patternsfor recreational divers were separately analyzed and the medicaloutcomes compared. The four subsets include:1) data collected from liveaboard trips;2) data collected from shore or day-boat dives;3) data collected from cold water wreck diving (the data fromScapa Flow); and4) data collected from day-boat dive professionals (mostly fromCozumel).The following section describes and contrasts the four data sets bydiver characteristics, dive environment, dive style, number of divesand medical outcomes.80DAN’s <strong>Report</strong> on Decompression Illness, Diving Fatalities and Project Dive Exploration: 2003 Edition