Multicentric study of scuba diving fatalities: the role of intracardiac gaseous carbon dioxide in the forensic diagnosis

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Serval ID
serval:BIB_5E6E4655B4DF
Type
A Master's thesis.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Multicentric study of scuba diving fatalities: the role of intracardiac gaseous carbon dioxide in the forensic diagnosis
Author(s)
KELLER T.
Director(s)
VARLET V.
Institution details
Université de Lausanne, Faculté de biologie et médecine
Publication state
Accepted
Issued date
2022
Language
english
Number of pages
27
Abstract
Scuba diving fatalities post mortem diagnosis presents a higher level of forensic complexity because of their occurrence in a non-natural human life environment. Scuba divers are equipped with diving gas to breathe underwater. It is essential for them to be fully trained in order to be able to manage their dive safely despite the varying increase of ambient pressure and temperature decrease. Throughout the dive, the inhaled diving gas is dissolved in the diver’s tissues during the descent and if the decompression steps are not respected during the ascent, the balance between the dissolved gas and the tissues (including blood) is disrupted, leading to a gaseous release in the organism. Depending on the magnitude of this gaseous release, free gas can occur in blood and tissue. Venous or arterial gas embolism can also occur as a consequence of decompression sickness or barotraumatism. It can also induce drowsiness that consequently leads to drowning. As a result, the occurrence of gas in dead scuba divers is very complex to interpret, as is the difficulty to distinguish it from resuscitation maneuver artifacts or body decomposition. Although the literature is scarce in this domain, significant work has been done to provide a precise intracadaveric gas sampling method to enlighten the cause and circumstances of death during the dive. The aim of this study is to obtain higher statistical significance by collecting a number of cases to confirm the gas sampling protocol and analysis and gain more information about the cause of death and the events surrounding the fatality through the establishment of clear management guidelines.
Keywords
scuba diving fatality, carbon dioxide, intracadaveric gas, drowning, gas embolism, diving pathology
Create date
08/08/2024 14:39
Last modification date
09/08/2024 15:54
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