Would taking aspirin help to guard against DCS?

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joe10540

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I am not a decompression diver by any means, but as a nurse when we have cardiac patients with decreased perfusion we give aspirin to thin the blood and help to increase perfusion. So by that thinking would taking aspirin predive help to facilitate more efficient offgassing and buffering against DCS? It would allow better blood flow through cold extremities and help keep blood that might be thickened by dehydration moving a little bit easier. Just curious and wanting to see what others thought on this subject.
 
I found this little nugget in an article on DCS

Aspirin is commonly considered and given in diving accidents for antiplatelet activity if the patient is not bleeding. However, there are no current data to support this practice. [124] The nitrogen bubbles interact with platelets, leading to adhesion and activation, which is thought to contribute to micro venous obstruction and resultant ischemia in DCS; however, no studies or trials of the effect or benefit of aspirin on this process have been conducted. Giving aspirin could increase bleeding, especially in severe DCS. [125, 126, 127].

Decompression Sickness Treatment & Management: Prehospital Care, Emergency Department Care, Consultations
 
Assuming it helps with OFF-gassing, wouldn't it also help the ON-gassing as well?

Unless you plan to pop the aspirin during your ascent?
 
Well aspirin used to be recommended to those suffering minor DCS symptoms. However i think that recommendation over the years transitioned to only use it if instructed by a doctor because analgesics can mask other symptoms making it harder to diagnose accurately.

I would imagine with severe DCS aspirin could be detrimental as it would help increase bleeding.

I dont take aspirin daily but often diving and a dose of aspiring at the end of the day coincide because lugging all the junk around exercises muscles i dont often use (ie: im a disgusting fatbody. I know I know, im working on it.)
 
If vascular inflammation, platelet aggregation and subsequent thrombosis contributes to direct vascular occlusion by bubbles as the cause of DCS, aspirin may have some effect on an episode of DCS. Perhaps someone who knows more about this topic will comment
 
not a doctor, don't know exactly how aspirin works, but what @guruboy said is where I would sit in this discussion. anything taken pre-dive to help with offgassing will also help with ongassing. Assuming there is an even performance throughout the dive, net effect would be 0 gain, 0 loss. Arguably, something like this would lose efficacy over time and would likely lead to an increase in on-gassing in the early part of the dive, but wear down/off towards the end of the dive, leading to the reverse effect.

This all assuming that this would behave similar to the temperature studies done where doing the first part of the dive warm, and the last part of the dive cool lead to an increase in DCS vs. starting the dive cool and finishing the dive warm
 
If you take an aspirin the half life is between 6 and 20 hours depending on the dose. My thinking is that It would facilitate blood flow and off gassing in cold hands and feet at the end of a dive. It shouldn't have as large of an effect at the start of a dive if you are warm and well hydrated.
 
I am not a decompression diver by any means, but as a nurse when we have cardiac patients with decreased perfusion we give aspirin to thin the blood and help to increase perfusion.
Are you sure that is why you do it? Here is a quote from an older thread from noted cardiologist and tech diver Dr. Douglas Ebersole:
As a cardiologist, aspirin definitely does not "thin" the blood. That is simply a layman's term that is commonly used. As mentioned above, it actually works to inhibit platelet aggregation.
 
Yes you take aspirin to inhibit platelet aggregation but platelets will form clumps and inhibit perfusion in situations where capillaries are constricted down like when you are cold and dehydrated. Not forming true emboli but pseudo emboli that will break up when they rejoin the larger veins.
 

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