Undersea & Dive Medicine
If you experience decompression sickness or another diving complication, choose UC San Diego Health for expert undersea and dive medicine.
You'll receive comprehensive care, including hyperbaric oxygen therapy, to meet all your diving needs.
What's Diving Medicine?
Undersea and dive medicine, also known as hyperbaric medicine, prevents and treats medical complications of diving due to increased ambient pressure or pressure changes in gas underwater.
Doctors for Divers
If you are a diver, you'll benefit from seeing a doctor who specializes in the medical and physiological aspects of complex diving. Diver medics manage and research diving medicine to ensure your safety while diving.
UC San Diego Health experts help prevent and treat disease and injury in divers and other individuals working in altered atmospheric conditions.
Clearance & Testing Services
Our specialists also offer consultations to assess and meet all your diving needs.
Before diving, reach out to UC San Diego Health to ensure you’re medically, physically and mentally fit for diving. Our services include physical examinations and consultations to meet your diving needs:
- Sport diving: Clearance for recreational diving classes or to return to diving after an injury
- Commercial diving: Exams mandated by Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for surveillance testing
- Scientific diving: Examinations that meet American Academy of Underwater Science (AAUS) standards
Diving Conditions We Treat
Get consultation and treatment for diving accidents, complications or illnesses like:
- Carbon monoxide poisoning
- Decompression sickness
- Diving injuries
- Gas embolism, air bubbles that get stuck in a blood vessel and blocks blood flow
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)
Ask your doctor if hyperbaric oxygen therapy can help your diving injuries or wounds heal faster. This noninvasive, painless therapy restores oxygen flow to injured tissue and helps your body heal and fight infection.