Diving with asthma medication

[alaxias]

Hi, while I'm not asthmatic, I recently got a bronchitis (now gone) that gave me some troubles (still coughing) and I'm now taking the following medication:

Oxeze: bronchodilator, formoterol fumarate dihydrate powder
Flovent: cortisone, fluticasone propionate

I will definitly talk to my doc before diving but I'm just wondering what's the general knowledge about this (I'd probably do a 15ft dive in about a month if it doesn't cause problems).

 

[ScubaDocER]

The medication you are on will certainly help with your bronchitis. I would err on the side of caution and wait until your lung infection has resolved. If the bronchodilators wear off underwater you could find yourself acutely short of breath. Give yourself some time to heal and you'll enjoy your diving more.

 

[TSandM]

The biggest risk is airway obstruction. The wheezing for which you were prescribed the medications is a sign that you have inflammation and excessive secretions in the airways. If those things block some small passages, then when you ascend, the gas in them expands without being able to escape. This is thought to be the mechanism of arterial gas embolism, which is the most dangerous kind of decompression sickness.

I would wait until you are quite asymptomatic -- No cough, no wheeze for several days -- before considering diving.

The medications themselves are not particularly worrisome, especially since you will have had plenty of time to become aware of their effects on you before diving. But the illness for which they are required is more concerning.

 

[alaxias]

Make sense, thanks!

 

[DrSteveJohnson]

Interestingly, in the UK, a combination of a long acting bronchodilator and an inhaled steroid would much more likely be used for asthma than bronchitis which tends to be treated with antibiotics alone.

I would agree with the above advice though unless this is a second or subsequent episode in which case I would worry about asthma. Either way, I would be suggesting spirometry testing after recovery to check lung function.

You don't smoke do you??

Hope you are better soon.

Steve

 

[TSandM]

It's pretty common in the US to use bronchodilators for people who appear to have some reactive airway component to their viral infection, but not to label them as "asthmatic" unless they have similar episodes not related to clear-cut URIs.

 

[clifftondiver]

The 2 meds you listed fomoterol and flovent are both long-acting meds. the flovent is an inhaled corticosteroid (not the barry bonds kind) and the other is a long-acting beta-agonist (works kind of like albuterol except for lots longer). The question isn't so much the meds, but the reason for which you were taking the meds. As a respiratory therapist, I wouldn't recommend irritating an already irritated airway with a dry gas like that which we breathe while diving.