Caisson's disease most often develops among scuba divers, rock climbers, and sailors serving in submarines. With this disease, gas cavities or certain vesicles appear in the circulatory system. It is also called decompression sickness. Typically, this process occurs in the body with a sharp change in environmental pressure.
What are the consequences of decompression sickness? The fact is that the resulting gas contributes to damage to the soft tissues, the circulatory process is partially disrupted, the nervous system suffers. For example, in the body of a diver after a dive, there is a sharp release of nitrogen into the blood, which leads to an imbalance of almost all natural processes. The rate of development of the disease depends on the degree of tissue elasticity, because thinner and flatter stretch faster, which means that more bubbles with gas are formed.
Caisson disease contributes to the formation of gas cavities of two types: either extravascular or intravascular. If vesicles appear in the area of soft tissues, then they can increase in size and thus put pressure on the nearest internal organs. And if they are formed directly in the internal organs or in the fat layer, then self-destruction of tissues will be inevitable. The second type, called intravascular, is considered more dangerous, as it contributes to the development of embolism. In the blood stream, a gas bubble meets many plaques, proteins, and other elements in its path that envelop it, thereby greatly complicating the resorption process.
Caisson disease in any case causes changes in the body that induce the manifestation of certain symptoms. Of course, the most common factor is pain in the area of damage. This disease should be taken seriously, since no one is safe from death. Large-scale accumulation of gases can trigger internal hemorrhage. Experts note that the skin of people who died due to this ailment quickly acquires a bluish tint.
Caisson disease is a pathology that can occur in three main stages. On the lung, the patient feels minor pain attacks, pain in the joints, in the bones. The middle stage is characterized by increased discomfort, which suggests general weakness throughout the body, cold sweat, pallor.
Often, an unpleasant feeling is so strong that a person experiences nausea, he can periodically vomit, there is a temporary visual impairment, up to complete blindness. A severe form is detected only with partial or complete dysfunction of the nerve endings, then paralysis of any limb or other part of the body occurs. This, in turn, provokes the development of asthma attacks, cardiovascular insufficiency, pale skin acquires a blue tint.
We should also talk about what methods exist to get rid of this problem. The most effective treatment is still considered recompression. This procedure involves immersing the patient in a special chamber where pressure is regulated, which means that it becomes possible to control the main factor in the development of the disease. Recompression allows you to set the atmosphere that is most favorable for the resorption of gas bubbles.
For a complete recovery, several sessions are necessary, their number and frequency is determined by a specialist, depending on the stage of development of the pathology. As an aid to speeding up the healing process, one can use medicines that improve the functioning of the cardiovascular or respiratory system, for example, oxygen masks, physiotherapeutic procedures can be performed to eliminate edema. And remember that decompression sickness is perfectly treated in modern conditions, the main thing is not to delay the visit to the doctor.