USC Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber Featured in Scientific American Blog

For the last month the "Expeditions" blog on the Scientific American website has run an excellent series on the University of Southern California Dornsife Scientific Research Diving program. The May 4 installment covers the USC Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber. Written by dive safety officer Gerry Smith, the short piece nicely summarizes the center's important role in treating recreational and scientific divers and others who suffer decompression sickness and air or gas embolism. We've written before about USC Catalina but didn't know the center is funded equally by the Los Angeles County Medical Alert Center and the local diving community and staffed 24/7 by a full-time director, a part-time technician, and some 70 volunteers.

[Photo: Karl Huggins]

A Model For Hyperbaric Referral Instructions

How delighted we'd be if every ProfilePlus page in the HyperbaricLink treatment center directory were linked to such clear and complete information for referring physicians as Virginia Mason Medical Center (Seattle WA) provides on its website. The center's updated Emergency Hyperbaric Referral Instructions page, strictly covering carbon monoxide poisoning, decompression sickness, and arterial gas embolism, neatly summarizes:

• Definitions/Causes
• Diagnosis/Symptoms
• Indications for hyperbaric treatment
• EMS management guidelines
• Patient information to capture

We think this simple format is a model of its kind. But why limit such helpful information to emergency indications? Referring physicians might benefit even more from expert guidance on chronic diseases and conditions.

O2.o is the news blog of HyperbaricLink, the independent web guide to hyperbaric oxygen therapy, at www.hyperbariclink.com

Dreamliner Pilots Ready For Decompression

As Boeing engineers and test pilots push the envelope with the new 787 Dreamliner, we're reminded that aircraft are really flying hyperbaric chambers, and rapid decompression can be deadly. Fifteen years ago, during a Boeing 777 test flight, a clamp on an air-conditioning duct came loose at 43,000 feet, and several engineers on board got the bends and had to be treated in a hyperbaric chamber immediately upon landing. Learn more about the flight test program on the special Boeing website, and check out this cool video of the first 787 stall test.