Lung surgery = no diving...ever?

[jeffinhburg]

Hello,

Well, I was all ready to jump in, had classes scheduled, fees paid, etc. I had my medical form filled out by an internist, who gave me a lung function test (normal, which is amazing, considering what my poor lung had been through). He said that 5 years after a lung wedge resection, the risk was not eliminated, but very acceptable. However, now my oncologist tells me that once the chest is opened up and there is scar tissue, the patient can always expect problems with diving, as there will be air in the chest, whether identified or not, and that he would never have signed the form had I brought it to him first.

I've waited so long to be sure I am recovered and to dive...should I now get a third opinion? Does anyone know if the onco is right, and that diving is completely contraindicated? If I go to 20 doctors, will I get 20 different opinions?

 

[Phaethon]

Coincidentally, while hunting for an unrelated scuba topic earlier today, I Googled across this:

http://www.scubadiving.com/article/0,7424,3-40-120-211-3-2X5-3,00.html

Hope it's of some help.

If I go to 20 doctors, will I get 20 different opinions?

Always!

Cheers,

K.

 

[GoBlue!]

Hello,

Well, I was all ready to jump in, had classes scheduled, fees paid, etc. I had my medical form filled out by an internist, who gave me a lung function test (normal, which is amazing, considering what my poor lung had been through). He said that 5 years after a lung wedge resection, the risk was not eliminated, but very acceptable. However, now my oncologist tells me that once the chest is opened up and there is scar tissue, the patient can always expect problems with diving, as there will be air in the chest, whether identified or not, and that he would never have signed the form had I brought it to him first.

I've waited so long to be sure I am recovered and to dive...should I now get a third opinion? Does anyone know if the onco is right, and that diving is completely contraindicated? If I go to 20 doctors, will I get 20 different opinions?

You'd be best served by having your specific case reviewed by a pulmonologist who is familiar with dive medicine. DAN can help you locate one in your area. It's not necessarily true that you will always have air "in the chest" after lung surgery; the body does a great job of filling in empty spaces with fluid or "scar."

But, the fact that you've had a wedge resection for (I'm presuming, since you have an oncologist) a cancer, I'd take your records & seek the opinion of a physician well-familiar with dive medicine.

Jim

 

[Otter]

We had a female student come in who had had part of her lung removed due to cancer. The physican signed her off and (although she wasn't my student) she seemed to do fine. Now, whether the Physican should have signed off is beyond my knowledge or training, but she is still diving.

 

[Saturation]

So long as there is no air trapped within scars, it would be acceptable risk for diving. Its best found by an MRI or CT scan of the chest, with special emphasis around any located scar tissue see via a chest x-ray, if at all visible.

 

[jeffinhburg]

There's still hope.


Thank you all. I'm in contact with a doc in Philly (is that you, saturation?), and will find out if I'm okay to go. In the meantime, I'll be getting the films and reports and starting the classroom and pool work, unless someone tells me that's a really bad idea.

Just got one of the old CT reports, and it won't be that helpful. It doesn't even mention the wedge resection, just the mediastinal part and lots of retroperitoneal clips, so I think it's a pretty strange read. It doesn't mention the existence or nonexistence of scar tissue. But, hey, my liver is normal!