Patent Foramen Ovale and future diving

[Freewillow]

An acquaintance had one "undeserved hit" after a deco dive with a DTR ( TTS) of 15 minutes. All when OK, no special circumpstances.
Since he had lost a bit of sensitivity in the tights and had a small abdominal pain he went for an hyperbaric treatment. Diagnosed with a PFO, he claims that, for him, diving is over.

Is there a proven correlation between PFO and DCS? I have read that PFO increases the risk of DCS but is this a "strong" contra-indication for further diving? I think that I have read that "some kind" of diving would still be allowed, but I cannot retrieve this text.

Anyone can help?

 

[dreamdive]

Yes, we have a lot of information on our website. Go to AddHelium.com and look under the science/learning section. One article was written by Dr. Debersole who is an interventional cardiologist and CCR diver. In the "Reference Library", you will find a ton of scientific papers related to diving and PFO.

I know of quite a few divers who had PFO's and did not want to stop diving. Instead they got it closed.

Good Luck and sincere good wishes.

Claudia Roussos MD

 

[TSandM]

I haven't read the articles dreamdive links to, but no, a PFO is not considered a contraindication to diving in and of itself. Since about 25% of the population has one (and likely 25% of the divers out there do) it's hard to say that having a PFO condemns you to DCS. However, we also know that people differ in their tendency to bubble, and it's likely that bubbles crossing the PFO account for at least some of the higher DCS risk, so it may be that easy bubblers are the folks who should worry about PFOs.

In general, I believe the advice is that, if you have had DCS and been diagnosed with a PFO, either you should get it closed or your diving should be managed to minimize the risk of intravascular bubbles. Such folks often limit their dive depth, use rich Nitrox mixes, and adopt staged ascent procedures.

 

[KevinNM]

Today someone posted this experience (see the bottom half of his post) with a PFO and closure, though he's doing pretty aggressive diving.

 

[kwinter]

As Claudia mentioned, Dr. Doug Ebersole is involved with PFO and diving research for DAN. You can contact him by PM on this board as debersole or do a search for his name and you will find similar threads.


iPhone. iTypo. iApologize.

 

[uncfnp]

You might find this thread helpful too.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/divers-with-disabilities/342325-diving-medical-condition-pfo.html

---------- Post added May 29th, 2015 at 08:27 AM ----------

FWIW there are several SBer's with known PFO's that continue to dive conservative profiles until or if they have it repaired. And several that have had the repair with threads/posts about their experiences with the surgery and diving.