PFO

[Sharpdiving]

My partner has had DCS about 6 times throughout the year. So we went to the hospital in Malaysia and had some tests. We found out she has a hole in her heart.
So she is going to go home to the UK and get it checked out and filled. But before she does, I just wanted to know will it help stop the DCS? Is it worth it, it is her job to dive. Once she gets it done does anyone know how long you have to wait till you can fly and dive again?
Thanks

 

[Bob DBF]

There are a number of quite involved discussions on PFO, google PFO and scubaboard. I would go through the ones in dive medicine with attention to the posts by the doctors that specialize in dive medicine.

My non doctor take on what I have read is that people have different personal tolerances for DCS, hers may be due to the PFO, or not, as a good percentage of the population have a PFO but a small number of divers have problems with it. I would read a lot, and talk to experts before operating on my heart.

I will ask that this thread be moved to dive medicine where the experts can chime in.

Good Luck

Bob

 

[joe10540]

Closing a PFO is a relatively straightforward procedure from my understanding of it. It has about the same risks as having a cardiac cath procedure which when things go well are relatively low but because we only have one heart and no redundancy like lungs and kidneys when it goes wrong it goes bad quickly. Depending on how serious her PFO is having it repaired could increase pulmonary circulation by a large amount which would help to increase off gassing and decrease her risk of DCS. Everyone's personal DCS threshold is different and even after healing and rehabilitation hers might still be lower than average.
Best wishes that she gets the care she needs and can get back to diving afterwards! Keep us posted please this could be very educational

 

[Lorenzoid]

Some info from DAN here: Patent Foramen Ovale | The Heart & Diving - DAN Health Issues & Diving

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

My partner has had DCS about 6 times throughout the year. So we went to the hospital in Malaysia and had some tests. We found out she has a hole in her heart.
So she is going to go home to the UK and get it checked out and filled. But before she does, I just wanted to know will it help stop the DCS? Is it worth it, it is her job to dive. Once she gets it done does anyone know how long you have to wait till you can fly and dive again?
Thanks

That depends on what her symptoms were. PFO is associated with sudden-onset severe neurological DCS, inner ear DCS, and cutis marmorata (skin marbling). What were her symptoms? Was she treated in a hyperbaric chamber? If so, did the symptoms resolve every time? How far apart were the DCS incidents? If they were close together it's possible that she returned to diving too soon and would have gotten DCS regardless of her PFO.

Assuming that (a) the symptoms are consistent with those associated with PFO and (b) weren't as a result of bubbles forming in tissues that were damaged from a previous incident, closure should reduce her likelihood of suffering from DCS that is related to shunted bubbles. This is not a guarantee though, and some divers who undergo PFO closure still experience DCS.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[Sharpdiving]

That depends on what her symptoms were. PFO is associated with sudden-onset severe neurological DCS, inner ear DCS, and cutis marmorata (skin marbling). What were her symptoms? Was she treated in a hyperbaric chamber? If so, did the symptoms resolve every time? How far apart were the DCS incidents? If they were close together it's possible that she returned to diving too soon and would have gotten DCS regardless of her PFO.

Assuming that (a) the symptoms are consistent with those associated with PFO and (b) weren't as a result of bubbles forming in tissues that were damaged from a previous incident, closure should reduce her likelihood of suffering from DCS that is related to shunted bubbles. This is not a guarantee though, and some divers who undergo PFO closure still experience DCS.

Best regards,
DDM

Thanks for your feedback.
She got it 5-6 times through a year. Each time happening between a big gap. She mainly got skin rash, joint pains and sometimes blurry vision. In our line of work we are quite far away from the chamber, so each time it happened no chamber. Just oxygen and it seized after 24 hours but the couple of days after she was a little sore but not in much pain.

After the 6th time we had to get it tested as it was getting silly plus more painful. Wished we got checked sooner.