The effectiveness of ground level oxygen treatment for altitude decompression sickness in human research subjects

Background: Current therapy for altitude decompression sickness (DCS) inclu des hyperbaric oxygen therapy and ground-level oxygen (GLO). The purpose of this paper is to describe the Air Force Research Laboratory experience in the extensive use of GLO for the treatment of altitude DCS in research subj ects. Methods: Data were collected from 2001 altitude chamber subject-expos ures. These data, describing DCS symptoms, circulating intracardiac venous gas emboli, and treatment procedures used were collected for each subject e xposure and stored in an altitude DCS database. Results In the database of 2001 subject exposures, 801 subjects (40.0%) were diagnosed with altitude D CS. Subjects reporting DCS symptoms were immediately recompressed to ground level. Of the 749 subjects who received 2 h GLO, 739 (98.7%) resolved comp letely and required no further treatment. Conclusions Although not an opera tional study, these data provide indirect support for the current USAF guid elines for the treatment of altitude DCS with GLO.