ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Air diving is frequently practiced by professionals or sportsmen. Controversial data exist in the literature on the existence of retinal abnormalities in divers. PATIENTS AND METHODS: 18 divers (aged: 27-58y) who dived around 2000 times in their life were studied: half of them dived only with air while the others used an O2-enriched gas mixture (40 to 60%). None of them had presented a bend (decompression sickness). Visual acuity and ocular fundus examination have been explored. A quantification of color vision and central visual field, so as a fluorescein angiography have been performed. RESULTS: No alteration of visual acuity was noted; abnormalities in the color vision and the visual field are reported; however the angiographic lesions described in the literature have not been observed. DISCUSSION: The alterations of color vision were quite severe but not very frequent. No correlation was found with any characteristics or type of diving. CONCLUSION: These observations are comforting for sportive divers who do not dive very often nor very deep but an individual predisposition is suspected.
