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Disorders of Hearing
Published in Anthony N. Nicholson, The Neurosciences and the Practice of Aviation Medicine, 2017
Linda M. Luxon, Ronald Hinchcliffe
Reduced pressurization during air travel (Mirza and Richardson, 2005), explosions (Persaud et al., 2003) and diving (Newton, 2001; Shupak et al., 2003) may give rise to tympanic membrane haemorrhage into the middle ear with a conductive hearing loss, or a perilymph fistula commonly associated with vestibular symptoms. The first recorded episode of otic barotrauma was when the French physicist Jacques Alexandre Charles took his first (and only) balloon flight in 1783 (O’Reilly, 1999). Otic barotrauma results from a failure to equalize the pressure in the middle ear cavity with that of the external environment. It is characterized by pain in the affected ear, impaired hearing and, sometimes, vertigo.
Basic Physiology and the Effects of Flight
Published in Roger G Green, Helen Muir, Melanie James, David Gradwell, Roger L Green, Human Factors for Pilots, 2017
Roger G Green, Helen Muir, Melanie James, David Gradwell, Roger L Green
Figure 1a.4 shows the anatomy of the ear. The middle ear is an air-filled cavity in communication with the nose and throat via the Eustachian tube. The walls of the Eustachian tube are soft and the nasal end acts as a flap valve. This allows expanding gas in the middle ear cavity to vent on ascent but on descent, with an increase in ambient pressure, this flap valve can stop air returning to the middle ear to equalize the pressure. This failure to restore the correct pressure inside the middle ear results in distortion of the ear drum giving rise to pain and injury known as otic barotrauma.
Environmental Factors for Fatigue and Injury in Breath-Hold/Scuba Diving
Published in Youlian Hong, Routledge Handbook of Ergonomics in Sport and Exercise, 2013
Jochen D. Schipke, Lucia Donath, Anne-Kathrin Brebeck, Sinclair Cleveland
If a diver with a cold starts a dive, the narrow openings of the sinuses may become obstructed in the course of a longer lasting dive. In this case, air will expand during ascent but cannot escape. In the occluded sinuses, considerable pain will develop with increasing pressure within the sinus. Occlusion of the Eustachian tube bears the risk of an ear barotrauma. In contrast to ear barotrauma during descent, the injury to the ear drum is now the result of positive pressure within the middle ear.
Into the deep blue sea: A review of the safety of recreational diving in people with diabetes mellitus
Published in European Journal of Sport Science, 2020
Theocharis Koufakis, Spyridon N. Karras, Omar G. Mustafa, Dimos Karangelis, Pantelis Zebekakis, Kalliopi Kotsa
Diving may be related to a series of health issues, with their severity ranging from mild or moderate (barotrauma of the ear, sea sickness) to potentially life-threatening [arterial gas embolism, decompression illness (DCI), and pulmonary barotraumas] (Sheeba & Sultan, 2014; Wohl, 2011). The underwater environment is characterised by an increased ambient pressure and low temperatures which pose a challenge to adaptive mechanisms of human physiology, particularly regarding the respiratory, cardiovascular and metabolic systems (Madsen, Hink, & Hyldegaard, 1994). For those reasons, safe diving requires optimal status of both mental and physical performance for divers to effectively adapt in a setting of continuously changing circumstances, requiring rapid decision making, especially in the case of emergencies (DeGorordo, Vallejo-Manzur, Chanin, & Varon, 2003).
Sphenoid sinus barotrauma in diving: case series and review of the literature
Published in Research in Sports Medicine, 2018
Jochen D Schipke, Sinclair Cleveland, Markus Drees
A barotrauma is usually thought to be a physical injury to body tissues caused by a pressure difference between a gas space inside or in contact with the body and the surrounding fluid (Brubakk & Neuman, 2003). Thus, such an injury might also happen in aviators, albeit less frequently due to the smaller pressure differences (Parell & Becker, 2000).