Pulmonary Hypertension and Diving
Can someone diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension become a diver?
Pulmonary hypertension is considered a severe risk condition, and diving is not recommended for anyone with this diagnosis. Endurance disciplines such as diving, which are likely to pose the highest hemodynamic demands and require a high physical fitness level, are challenging for people with pulmonary hypertension. The stress that diving puts on the lungs and the right side of the heart may be too much for such an individual. Concerns of congestive heart failure or immersion-induced pulmonary edema are just two significant risk factors.
A person’s preexisting condition and exercise intolerance will affect the heart and lungs’ ability to perform underwater. Various factors while underwater lead to intravascular volume shifts to the central circulation involving the heart, coronary vessels, and lungs. In a healthy state, this increase in fluid usually causes no problem, but a person with pulmonary hypertension will struggle, sometimes even at rest, to keep up with the right ventricle’s increased workload as it tries to overcome the elevated pressure within the pulmonary vessels.
— Shannon Sunset, NCPT, NREMT
© Alert Diver Magazine Q1 2022/ DAN.org
Pulmonary hypertension is considered a severe risk condition, and diving is not recommended for anyone with this diagnosis. Endurance disciplines such as diving, which are likely to pose the highest hemodynamic demands and require a high physical fitness level, are challenging for people with pulmonary hypertension. The stress that diving puts on the lungs and the right side of the heart may be too much for such an individual. Concerns of congestive heart failure or immersion-induced pulmonary edema are just two significant risk factors.
A person’s preexisting condition and exercise intolerance will affect the heart and lungs’ ability to perform underwater. Various factors while underwater lead to intravascular volume shifts to the central circulation involving the heart, coronary vessels, and lungs. In a healthy state, this increase in fluid usually causes no problem, but a person with pulmonary hypertension will struggle, sometimes even at rest, to keep up with the right ventricle’s increased workload as it tries to overcome the elevated pressure within the pulmonary vessels.
— Shannon Sunset, NCPT, NREMT
© Alert Diver Magazine Q1 2022/ DAN.org
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