Skin bend ??

[simon66]

Following a dive to 62 metres on air and using a 63 Ean mix for deco , deco time being 12 minutes my dive buddy have what may be a skin bend , we`re not sure as the amount of kit may have caused a problem .
It was`nt a hard dive and most time spent around the 20 metre mark and deco completed at 6.5 metres , computers were on a hard profile and it was a fairly easy dive , the rash lasted for about 20 minutes with slight soreness and itching then returned to normal , but as a precaution 67 Ean was breathed for about 5 minutes . Do you suspect this to be a skin bend as no other symptoms occurred .

 

[Dr Deco]

Dear simon66:

This redness and itching known as skin bends is not seen in water dives, but I will guess that your buddy was wearing a dry suit because of the cold water. This itching problem was first described about 150 years ago by caisson workers and described as being like fleas biting you.

The fact that it disappeared after about 20 minutes is a good indication that it was dive related. If it were an allergic rash, it probably would have persisted for a longer duration.

Dr Deco:doctor:

 

[simon66]

Thanks for the reply ,
We`ve done other dives to down to 40 metres or so and he`s been ok then , but on a 35 metre dive which was fairly hard due to equipment being twin sets and deco bottles and a 40 metre walk to the water , deco was approx 6 minutes on 70 Ean and on surface was ok , surface time was approx two hours and he went in again but did`nt go into deco and went to max depth of 20 metres and used 70 Ean for 5 minutes before coming out .
He walked back to the car park to dekit and got kit snagged on drysuit so had all the weight on one shoulder for a minute or so , that shoulder then had rash and tender to the touch for approx 20 mins , but boat dives with help in kitting up and profiles the same he`s ok ?? .

 

[trymixdiver]

I had a similar problem yet i had discoloration of the skin, blochy purple spots on my chest after a dive of about 20 min at 220 total dive time around 2 hrs or so . My sypmtoms were mainly ichy ( very ichy) and some purple skin discoloration.

It lasted a few hrs, progressivly got worse in the first 30 min then just persisted for a about 2 hr 30 min more. I didnt notice any problem until i was out of my gear. Didnt have any problems during my 1 hr 30 min + deco, i was using 80% at 15 '. I have never had this problem again, any ideas.

suit squeeze maybe? thats what i was told anyway but i wanted to hear from this board just the same.

 

[simon66]

Hi trymixdiver ,
My buddy again does`nt get this very often , but after going back over past dives it`s happened when we`ve not had much help to get kitted up and he`s been cold during deco stops .
He wears a membrane suit with an undersuit and clothes during winter but he still can get cold .
Again like you he`s very itchy on the shoulders and it goes in about 15 minutes .
Next dive with deco we`re going to have help to kit up with the twin sets etc and at the end of the dive asap breath 100 oxy for approx 5 minutes to see if this helps , he`s also going to look into these electric body warmer corsetts to see if these would help to keep him warmer during deco stops .
We did think of suit squeeze but during the summer less clothes etc are worn so if any thing if would be worse.
From what we can see it appears to be a combination of the cold pre and post dive work.
We`ll see , try some of our ideas and let me know if it helps you .

Simon .

 

[trymixdiver]

My guess is it was brought on by post dive work. This was a beach dive so walking in then out of the surf with twin 104's and 2 deco bottles was not the best move. Oddly though, i did the same dive every weekend for over a year and never had any problems like that before. Soon as i win the lottery i am done with tech beach diving