What Is Hypercapnia?
7. Diving and Hypercapnia
In diving, normal respiration results in inadequate elimination of carbon dioxide, resulting in hypercapnia. This is due to the variety of reasons where the carbon dioxide is not expelled completely during exhalation. For example, the diver exhales into a vessel where the carbon dioxide does not escape to the environment resulting in reinhalation.
Another reason is over-exercising leading to increased carbon dioxide because of elevated metabolic activity. The carbon dioxide scrubber may also not be sufficient to remove carbon dioxide. Because the density of the breathing gas becomes higher as the diver dives deeper, there is more effort to inhale and exhale, causing breathing to become more difficult. Divers may also be “skip breathing” in an effort to conserve breathing gas. All these reasons contribute to the possibility of hypercapnia in divers.
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