Diving with Minor Injuries

Just did a simple dive in Byron Bay Australia to 18m for 40min testing a new camera (lots of fun). I didnt swim more than 10m in any direction so I wasn't fatigued.

On returning to the surface I had a twinge/ache in my right knee.

2 Days before this I was boogey boarding on the gold coast and got dumped in the surf and jambed the knee. Nothing serious, could still walk on it just a slight swelling and not as comfortable as it should be.

The twinge in the knee lasted for about 24 hours and was a bit uncomfortable driving the ute.

The question is have other divers ever noticed this situation where a minor injury is affected by pressure?

BTW I carry many old injuries from my rugby days including neck, back, shoulder, ankle (reconstructed) and wrist and apart from a minor irritation in my neck have never had an issue from these old injuries.

Is this a well known situation or was It an act of imagination based on a change to the injured knee?

regards

Ardy

It's more likely that the ache you felt in your knee was due to carrying heavy load in and out of the dive site (tank, weights...).

mislav:

It's more likely that the ache you felt in your knee was due to carrying heavy load in and out of the dive site (tank, weights...).

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Nope - We were diving in an inflatable and I just put my gear on and fell over the side on return I took my weight belt, tank and BCD off and handed them up. Didnt have to carry gear at all as it all stayed on the boat.

I doubt it was the pressure, possibly a bit of imagination and over awareness of the original injury.

Also finning is a bit stressful on the knees, with forces in unusual directions compared to what knees usually undergo. Even though you didn't swim much, it might have been enough to inflame the prior injury.

don Francisco:

Also finning is a bit stressful on the knees, with forces in unusual directions compared to what knees usually undergo. Even though you didn't swim much, it might have been enough to inflame the prior injury.

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Agreed, especially if using a frog kick where there's a bit of rotational force on the knee that could also irritate the previous injury.

When it comes to pressure and your knees underwater, there is no net change in pressure, your knee doesn't care if it is at 1000' underwater or 1000' above sea level. For divers it is your lungs and gas in your bloodstream that is a concern when diving. Gas and our gas exchange machine <lungs> are concerned about pressure because that changes gas solubility.

We're mainly water and that doesn't compress.

Belce:

When it comes to pressure and your knees underwater, there is no net change in pressure, your knee doesn't care if it is at 1000' underwater or 1000' above sea level. For divers it is your lungs and gas in your bloodstream that is a concern when diving. Gas and our gas exchange machine <lungs> are concerned about pressure because that changes gas solubility.

We're mainly water and that doesn't compress.

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hmmm... I don't know about that.

Pressure is definitely more important than just gas exchange rates from changes in partial pressure. Pressure from exterior forces exert pressure on muscles and joints just like they do the lungs. Just because your joints don't expand or contract AS MUCH as your lungs may doesn't mean it isn't there. People with pins and plates implanted after accidents can definitely tell the difference between low or high barometric pressure changes.

While I admit the stress of fins is likely the cause here, there are ultrasound experiments showing micro-bubbles forming in joints and other low-flow areas during ascent from several atms of pressure even when DCS doesn't result. Its a physiological fact that pressure will affect muscle O2 consumption, volume, and blood delivery as well... all of which "could" affect healing/inflammation.

I'd also wonder if the pressure and colder temps at depth served as a mild compress or ice pack... allowing over use or injury to occur without much discomfort until returning to the surface where inflammation could occur. Probably a bit of a stretch, but it could explain or contribute to this.

To say joints and muscles are oblivious to pressure though is really going a bit simplistic.

If you were climbing everest and expected 0.3 atms then yes, I say the drop of 0.7atm probably isn't going to change joint/muscle pressures much and your main concern would be HACE or other lung issues from your blood pressure (~2psi spikes) bursting aveoli in thin air and that's about it for low pressure issues.

In diving you don't see that little pressure change, you get WAY more in the opposite direction (it doesn't take much to get to 3 atm). Muscle and joints diving to 6 atms probably feel it much more than any 0-pressure space walk would.

Belce:

When it comes to pressure and your knees underwater, there is no net change in pressure, your knee doesn't care if it is at 1000' underwater or 1000' above sea level... We're mainly water and that doesn't compress.

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I'd also point out the noticeable difference in wearing or not wearing a simple neoprene knee brace... that whole difference is from a minor pressure change.

Simply the change in posture and muscle positions in a standard diving "pose" compared to on land can make things ache even if its not carrying heavy loads. Pressure however has nothing to do with it.

As a caveat though its worth remembering that with some injuries there is some evidence to suggest they can act as a catalyst to decompression injury or bubbles so depending on what injury you have you maybe better off not diving or at least going very conservatively.

That said i quite often dive with a slight niggle here, ache there etc. If i didnt i wouldnt be diving at all.

Frog kicking really does hurt my knees though. Quite often ache AFTER a dive as a result of that.

String:

Simply the change in posture and muscle positions in a standard diving "pose" compared to on land can make things ache even if its not carrying heavy loads. Pressure however has nothing to do with it.

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Logic flaw. One does not exclude the other.