Ocular alterations in divers: 2 case reports and literature review

Development of myopia in scuba diving and hyperbaric oxygen treatment: a case report and systematic review

Introduction

A 54-year-old, previously healthy Caucasian male diver was on a 22-day liveaboard diving holiday. During this time, he performed 75 open-circuit dives, of which 72 were with enriched air nitrox. All dives were within recreational length and depth. After the trip he noticed a worsening of vision and his refraction had changed from the previous -3.75/-5.75 to -5.5/-7.75 dioptres. Hyperoxic myopia is a well-known phenomenon after hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBOT), but related literature in recreational divers is scarce.

Methods

A systematic literature review on the effect of a hyperoxic environment on the development of myopia was done according to the PRISMA guidelines. Three databases were searched: Ovid MEDLINE, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library. A risk of bias analysis was done on all articles, and the GRADE approach was used to evaluate the quality of evidence. Articles that had sufficient data were used to synthesise a visualisation of oxygen exposure and changes in refraction.

Results

Twenty-two articles were included in this review. These included five case reports, two case series, nine cohort studies, one randomised controlled trial and five reviews, of which one was systematic. Most articles described HBOT patients' ocular complications, although four articles were diver centric. The synthesis of results suggests that divers tend to get a greater myopic shift with a smaller exposure. However, the data were too heterogeneous to perform meaningful statistical analyses. This review is the first to focus on divers instead of HBOT patients.

Conclusions

The case presented led to a systematic literature review on the effects of hyperbaric oxygen on refractive changes in both HBOT patients and divers. The data were too heterogeneous to make meaningful suggestions on a safety limit to prevent myopisation in diving.