USAF Experience with Hyperbaric Therapy of Altitude Decompression Sickness (1941-1999)
Abstract
Decompression sickness (DC S) is characterized by a plethora of protean symptoms. It can range from mildly annoying to life threatening. Its etiology is tissue and/or vascular bubbles. Indeed decompression sickness bas been a recognized disease since its first report by Triger in 1841. First noted in construction workers laboring in pressurized caissons and later in diving operations, decompression sickness was not even postulated in aviation until 1901 by von Schrotter. Later (1917) Henderson popularized the concept. Over the next forty years some 17, 000 cases of altitude DCS were described. At least 743 were considered serious and at least seventeen were fatal. However altitude decompression sickness was not treated with recompression until Behnke employed it in 1941. Indeed this paper describes the USAF treatment effort over the last fifty-eight years.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1999
- Accession Number
- ADP011059
Entities
People
- E. G. Wolf
- Larry P. Krock
- William P. Butler
Organizations
- United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine