I had Spontaneous Pneumothorax left and right lungs 15 years ago, can i scuba dive like 15 feet?

[marvinsss2005]

This explanation raised a question for me: Should a person at high risk of SP breath-hold dive while snorkeling? When I go snorkeling I would spend a lot of time at 10-20' while holding my breath. If (and granted this is a remote chance) an event hit at depth, the air would expand as I went up but to no more than my original lung volume. Still, it's an air space that doesn't ordinarily hold air and might put pressure in the wrong place. How dead would I be?

(As far as I know I'm at zero risk for SP, so I'm not personally concerned. Just an academic interest.)

Someone on this thread told that holding a breath while descending was dangerous to experienced SP's before.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

This explanation raised a question for me: Should a person at high risk of SP breath-hold dive while snorkeling? When I go snorkeling I would spend a lot of time at 10-20' while holding my breath. If (and granted this is a remote chance) an event hit at depth, the air would expand as I went up but to no more than my original lung volume. Still, it's an air space that doesn't ordinarily hold air and might put pressure in the wrong place. How dead would I be?

(As far as I know I'm at zero risk for SP, so I'm not personally concerned. Just an academic interest.)

That's an interesting question. Intrathoracic pressure would be pretty consistent, not like inspiration/expiration on the surface, and even with incomplete inspiration the lungs would probably not be compressed to anywhere near residual volume at that depth, so I don't think that snorkeling would carry any greater risk than exercise on the surface. Even with a 100% pneumo at depth, the air in the pleural space would only expand to the volume it would have been had the individual suffered a 100% pneumo on the surface. Not to say that that wouldn't be incapacitating, but it doesn't have the potential for cardiac tamponade like a pneumo while scuba diving does.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

PM sent to OP.