A 43-year-old male scuba diver presented with an acute history of painful unilateral visual loss after scuba diving. He had right-sided retrobulbar pain and headache. He was known to have sinusitis and had transient visual loss in two previous episodes after scuba diving. His visual acuity was hand motions and 20/20 in the right and left eye, respectively. There was no proptosis. He had a right...

AIM To determine the consensus and concordance with published standards and expert opinion among New Zealand's designated diving doctors (DDDs) and general practitioners (GPs) regarding medical fitness-to-dive. METHODS A postal survey canvassed doctors' opinions regarding fitness-to-dive of 20 'real-life' applicants with potentially relevant medical conditions. In 17 cases, a 'desired respons...

Macaronesia is formed by some of most isolated oceanic islands the Atlantic Ocean. This region typically heavily exploited fisheries; however, in recent years, marine wildlife tourism has become popular and a shark-diving industry emerged, potentially presenting an alternative for sustainable use sharks. Combining literature review with interviews dive operators conducting shark encounters Maca...

Bleomycin is to treat patients with testicular cancer and lymphoma. Bleomycin can bind to DNA and chelate iron. The resulting complex can form an intermediate capable of interacting with oxygen to produce reactive oxygen species, particularly superoxide. Administrating high-inspired oxygen concentrations (e.g. during anaesthesia or acute illness) has been reported to exacerbate pulmonary injury...

Murder and suicide in involving scuba are extremely rare. A systematic search identified 19 published studies describing 4,339 recreational diving fatalities occurring between 1956 and 2011. Case vignettes identified three possible murders and eight likely suicides. These are summarised and the victims' demography described. Prevalences of 69 murders per 105 diving fatalities and 184 suicides p...

Scuba diving is associated with an important risk of devel­oping decompression sickness secondary to formation of gas bubbles inside the body. The latter is formed mainly by nitrogen in the body on the diver’s way to the surface (1,2). In some cases, it might injure the central nervous system. Several decompression cases that have been asso­ciated with neurologic symptoms are described in the l...