divemedicine

Divemedicine, also known as diving medicine, is a medical field focused on health issues related to underwater diving and exposure to hyperbaric or high-pressure environments. The field covers prevention, evaluation, and treatment of conditions caused by diving, including physiological effects of pressure changes and environmental hazards. Practitioners assess fitness to dive, advise on dive planning, and provide medical care for divers in occupational, recreational, or military contexts. They may work in hospitals, dive medicine clinics, or as part of occupational health services, and often collaborate with hyperbaric specialists, anesthesiologists, and emergency physicians.

Common clinical concerns include decompression sickness and arterial gas embolism, nitrogen narcosis, oxygen toxicity, barotrauma of the ear, sinuses, and lungs, pulmonary edema under pressure, and issues related to long-term exposure such as dysbaric osteonecrosis. The management of acute dive injuries frequently involves rapid assessment and hyperbaric oxygen therapy; preventive care includes pre-dive medical examination, vaccination, hydration, and adherence to dive tables or dive computers.

Education and certification vary by country but typically involve training in dive physiology, dive safety, first aid, CPR, and hyperbaric medicine. Professional bodies such as the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Society provide guidelines and continuing education. The field supports commercial divers, military personnel, recreational divers, undersea construction workers, and individuals at risk from environmental exposures to pressure changes.