Pulmonary edema in scuba divers: recurrence and fatal outcome.

Pulmonary edema occurring in divers using a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (scuba) is an uncommon, probably under-reported, but potentially life-threatening and recurrent condition. We report six episodes of pulmonary edema in five scuba divers seen during a period of 15 months. The four men and one woman ranged in age from 37 to 56 years and two were treated for hypertension.

[Idiopathic medullary decompression sickness: myth or reality?].

Severe decompression sickness occurs unfrequently, with, generally an identifying cause (error in decompression protocols, promoting factors.). We report a case of severe spinal cord damage; onset after a common dive, neither deep nor long, without any promoting factor, absence of responsiveness to recompression, three hours post-dive, importance of MRI signal abnormalities, make us to point out the confounding variability of onset and evolution of such illness.