Scuba Diving Injuries

Over the last 30 years, scuba diving has significantly increased in popularity. In 1975, there were only around 200,000 divers in the U.S. Today, there’s an estimated nine million certified divers in the U.S. While obviously an interesting, fun, and exciting activity, scuba diving does come with a risk of injury.

Most of the serious diving injuries follow the diver being in poor physical health and/or not following the safety rules of diving. Improper equipment and equipment failure are also frequent causes of dive-related injuries. Potentially life threatening injuries like barotrauma to the lungs; ear, sinus, and tooth squeezes; and decompression sickness (the bends) are the most talked about injuries in scuba diving, but there are actually a number of other injuries that divers face.

What Are Some Scuba Diving Injuries?

Muscle Cramps

A spasm is the involuntary contraction of a skeletal muscle. When this spasm is sustained and forceful, it becomes a muscle cramp. The muscle will not relax on its own. The cramping can affect part of one muscle or a few fibers of a muscle, an entire muscle, or multiple muscles within a muscle group. In scuba diving, the most common sites for cramps are in the calf muscles, hamstrings, quadriceps, and arc of the foot. Muscle cramps may be caused by a number of factors, including muscle fatigue, muscle tightness, dehydration, nerve hyper-excitability, hard and soft tissue injuries, and so forth. However, finning is one of the main causes of muscle cramps in divers, as it requires the lower leg muscles to repeatedly flex and extend the ankle. The symptoms of a muscle cramp are a sudden sharp contraction or spasm that causes muscle pain and a palpable or visible lump in the affected muscle.

Contusions

A contusion is the medical term for the various types of bruises. They are caused by blunt force impacts, such as a diver slipping and falling as they return on a boat, colliding with underwater objects, or being knocked into another diver or object by a wave. The impact can damage tissue at the subcutaneous, muscle, or bone level…depending on the force of the impact. As the affected tissue is struck, the tiny capillaries in the area are torn and begin to seep blood into the nearby interstitial tissues. The area may swell, turn black-and-blue, and become sore and painful as the seeping blood accumulates.

Of course, these are just a few of the potential injuries a scuba diver may suffer. Lower back injuries can occur from lifting heavy dive gear and wearing weighted wetsuits. Muscle strains, especially in the lower leg, can occur from the repetitive kicking involved with scuba diving. Fractures, lacerations, and concussions can occur following a collision with a boat, reef, or marine life.