Etiology of decompression sickness

D.M. LeMessurier, Supersaturation and preformed nuclei in the etiology of decompression sickness, paper presented at the Second International Meeting on Aerospace Medicine, Melbourne, 1972 (unpublished). 

Mass transfer models were combined with dose-response analyses to yield more insight into the fundamental etiology of decompression sickness. Data are presented that would favor a four-tissue model of a hamster from an inert gas exchange point of view (1) lung, (2) a fast tissue with a time constant corresponding to the cardiac output per gram of tissue, and (3, 4) two slow tissues (time constant 6.3 and 25.5 min) corresponding to those tissue sites susceptible to bubble nucleation. 

One fundamental assumption in explaining the etiology of decompression sickness is shown in Figure 4. This curve depicts the assumed behavior of small animals exposed to increasing insults of decompression risk. The percent mortality as a function of inert gas partial pressure in a characteristic tissue rises along an S-shaped curve and finally reaches a level of 100%. 

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