Influence of prehospital management on the outcome of spinal cord decompression sickness in scuba divers.

Background: Decompression sickness (DCS) with spinal cord involvement has an unfortunately high rate of long-term sequelae. The objective of this study was to determine the association of prehospital variables on the outcome of spinal cord DCS, especially the influence of the initial clinical presentation and the time to recompression.

Methods: This was a retrospective study using prospectively collected data which included divers with spinal cord DCS seen at a single hyperbaric centre study from 2010 to 2018.