On the likelihood of decompression sickness

Abstract

The occurrence of decompression sickness in animals and humans is characterized by the extreme variability of individual response. Nevertheless, models and analyses of decompression results have generally used a critical value approach to separate safe and unsafe decompression procedures. Application of the principle of maximum likelihood provides a formal and consistent way to quantify decompression risk and to apply models to data on decompression outcome. By use of the maximum likelihood principle, a number of models were fit to data from dose-response and maximum pressure-reduction experiments with both rats and men. Several different formulations of two- and three-parameter models described the data well. In addition to summarizing data sets, the analyses provide a way to maximize the value of experimental observations, test theoretical predictions, estimate uncertainty in conclusions, and recommend safe practices.