Talk:Decompression illness
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[edit] Decompression Sickness vs Decompression Illness
I don't believe this page should be merged with Decompression sickness, as decompression sickness (DCS) and decompression illness (DCI) have important distinctions in the diving (and dive medicine) community.
DCS is commonly known as the bends, and is caused by a drop in pressure causing gas to come out of solution in the body's tissues and fluids.
DCI is a group of disorders, usually understood to mean both DCS, and air embolisms. Air embolisms are caused by barotrauma due to overexpansion of confied air within a body cavity — often in the lungs as a result of holding ones breath, but other forms of barotrauma do exist.
In other words, DCS is a type of DCI.
By merging the two articles, anyone wishing to find out information about DCI is instead given a lot of information about one type of injury (DCS), but very little about the other (air embolisms). It also makes it less obvious that there is a distinction between the two terms.
The DCI page does have the potential to become a free-standing (albeit short) article, with a mention of common symptoms and first aid, as well as a brief explanation as to the differences between DCS and an air embolism.
