Parameter estimation in decompression sickness

It is critical that scuba divers and submariners can assess the possible effects of changes in pressure of their surrounding atmosphere as otherwise they may be affected by the “bends” (or, to use its more formal name, Decompression Sickness (DCS)) which can be severely debilitating and even fatal. For scuba diving there is an enormous literature on how to change water depth safely to avoid any possible DCS. Advice from such work emphasises that pressure changes should be very slow and involve significant periods of resting at intermediate depths. Here we consider a different regime where the possibility of DCS needs to be assessed when submariners have been exposed to raised pressure for a long time, and then undertake a highly transient pressure manoeuvre that arises when escaping from a submarine at very large depths. The purpose of the study group work was to consider models that might explain existing data and also give realistic predictions outside the scope of the existing data.