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The Bends Symptoms

Well over half of divers with decompression illness report symptoms within 1 hour of surfacing from the dive. Some 95% of victims show symptoms within 6 hours. Almost all show symptoms within 24-48 hours. The nitrogen bubbles released during surfacing cause damage by mechanically obstructing blood flow. Additionally, they cause a local chemical disruption of the vascular beds.

Specific symptoms include these:

• The bends: The bends are joint pains involving the arms or legs. Intensity varies from mild to severe. Arms are more commonly involved than legs. The pain is usually most prominent around joints and is sometimes relieved by direct pressure. This occurs because nitrogen is released into the joints and muscles.

• Itching: Skin itching usually goes away by itself but may progress to include other symptoms of decompression illness.
  
  
• Skin: Rashes can be red or marbled. They can be accompanied by itching.
  
  
• Lymph nodes: They can be swollen and painful.

• Pain: Pain can occur at the head, neck, or torso. Pain at these sites versus the arms or legs carries a worse prognosis.

• Nervous system: Someone with decompression illness often has nervous system complaints, such as weakness on one side of the body, numbness, pains shooting down an arm or leg, inability to urinate or defecate, or other strokelike symptoms. This occurs because nitrogen bubbles released into the circulation obstruct blood flow in areas of the brain or spinal cord.

• Chokes: Decompression illness rarely causes breathing systems problems called the "chokes." Symptoms include burning chest pain, cough, and shortness of breath.

• Staggers: Occasionally someone with decompression illness may have symptoms suggesting an inner ear problem, such as a spinning sensation, deafness, ringing in the ears, or vomiting. This group of symptoms is called the "staggers."