Undersea & Hyperbaric Medicine Journal Volume 45, Issue #3

Course overview

Learner Objectives: As a result of having attended the meeting, the participants should have had the opportunity to: 1. List the key steps in first aid management of decompression illness. 2. Define mild decompression illness and how this designation may influence the management of afflicted divers. 3. Discuss the advantages and potential complications of in-water recompression. 4. To outline how submarine-specific factors may have an effect on sleep and circadian rhythms of submariners. 5. To discuss the effects that fatigue from sleep loss and/or circadian misalignment can have on individual performance. 6. To develop an understanding of the interaction between fatigue and team dynamics and its effects on performance in a submarine team environment. 7. To understand why the Strauss Gradient-Perfusion Model is useful for explaining the reason decompression sickness occurs. 8. To appreciate why perfusion is so variable with its 5-liter blood volume and a capacity of the vascular system greater than 20-liters. 9. To realize that on-gassing and off-gassing occur in three tissue types, i.e. fast tissues that require uninterrupted perfusion, intermediate tissues that have a highly variable blood supply, and slow tissues where inert gas enters and exits by diffusion. 10. To explain why disordered decompression as a cause of decompression sickness is the preferred term rather than unexplained decompression sickness. Subject Matter: 1. Consensus guideline: Pre-hospital management of decompression illness: expert review of key principles and controversies. 2. Research Report Effects of sleep and fatigue on teams in a submarine environment. 3. Research Article The Gradient Perfusion Model Part 1: Why and at what sites decompression sickness can occur. Teaching Methods: Journal Reading; Examination of material; Evaluation of activity. Evaluation Methods: Evaluation is offered through the online educational portal with 3 graded questions each UHM Journal paper and an overall evaluation at completion of the Journal-based activity.