Temperature effect on decompression

[Dawn]

Hi all,

At the GUE Conference, an interesting point was made during the deco roundtable (sorry to those of you on dykarna.nu who have seen this question already).

Dr. David Doolette mentioned the recovery dives made years ago on flight wreckage, and the fact that the incidence of DCS significantly increased when the recovery divers switched from regular drysuits to heated fluid suits...they went from being cold on the bottom to uncomfortably warm during deco, to being "comfortably warm" during the entire dive, and consequently their rate of DCI increased.

Others then chimed in at the roundtable, including Michael Waldbrenner (EKPP), George Irvine (WKPP), and since then members of Sweden's Ocean Discovery. They all said they have seen this phenomenon during their dives and use this variation in temperature (cold at the bottom, warm throughout deco) to their advantage.

This all makes sense if you look at temperature effects on gas behavior and phsyiology in general, but I was wondering if anyone has a lead on research done looking at "optimal" temperature in decompression diving? I've searched through pubmed and found a few things closely related, but not exactly in this area.

Thanks in advance!
Dawn