Air embolism is a medical condition that can happen to any scuba diver underwater

 This condition is characterized by an air/gas bubble or bubbles in the bloodstream. That can cause many problems, such as,  stroke-like symptoms, blockage of blood supply to organs, or cardiac arrest if it reaches the heart.

Regardless of scuba diving, the primary causes for air embolism include air that enters the bloodstream during surgery, intravenous feeds, massive trauma and air bubbles in injections. 

Doctors determine the degree of severity of air embolism depending on the size of the air bubbles in the bloodstream of the patient. Big air bubbles in arteries can obstruct the flow of blood causing severe complications depending on the location in the body. For example an air bubble in an artery that supplies blood to a vital organ like a kidney can lead to kidney failure. Another that blocks the supply of blood to the brain can cause stroke-like symptoms including losing consciousness.

What about scuba diving and air embolism? Know the reasons for air embolism in scuba diving and the treatment of this case in the next lines.

Scuba Diving and Air Embolism: What Are the Reasons?

Air embolism in scuba diving is associated with two medical conditions that can happen to any scuba diver who aren’t adhering to the safety rules of scuba diving. These two conditions are:

Pulmonary Barotrauma

Pulmonary Baratrauma is a medical condition that happens when some air bubbles enter the bloodstream because of severe trauma or having an injury in the lungs when rapidly ascending while you are holding your breath. 

While you are conducting rapid ascents, the air in your lungs expands, that may lead the lung to over expand and rupture, leading to releasing bubbles into the bloodstream. Scuba divers then will not even realize that their lungs have ruptured because lungs only give little warning in the form of “pain”. 

The symptoms of Pulmonary Barotrauma are feeling pain and discomfort after surfacing, blood or frothy blood from the mouth. Any diver who shows symptoms of pulmonary barotraumas should also immediately be treated for air embolism, too.

Decompression Sickness (DCS)

If the gas that has dissolved by the bloodstream isn’t able to escape from a diver’s body in the decompression stops, the trapped air is likely to form air embolism, which has much less noticeable symptoms .

Air embolism that happens due to decompression sickness is difficult to spot and potentially more dangerous because air bubbles can form in the arterial system and continue traveling to and lodge in the brain leading to a stroke by the end.

Treatment of Air Embolism

First aid treatment for both types of air embolism in scuba diving is:

• Administer oxygen.
• Place the affected scuba diver in the Trendelenberg position ( which is a slanted position with his head facing down)

This keeps air bubbles trapped in the apex of the ventricle. if it has reached the heart, and also makes the rate of travel more slow, this reduces the probability of the embolism to reach the brain or heart. It is important to take the affected scuba diver to a hospital for treatment which often involves administration of pure oxygen, and placing the diver in a hyperbaric chamber under high pressure in order to force the gases in the air embolism to dissolve into the bloodstream, as a result of that, the embolism clear.