Dive Illnesses And Treatments Practice Test

In DCS, inert gas bubbles form primarily from which gas?

Oxygen Carbon dioxide Nitrogen Helium

Correct Answer:

Nitrogen

Explanation:

When a diver ascends, dissolved gases come out of solution as bubbles. The gas most responsible is nitrogen because air is mostly nitrogen, and under pressure nitrogen dissolves in blood and tissues. As you rise and ambient pressure falls, that dissolved nitrogen supersaturates and forms gas bubbles, causing decompression sickness. Oxygen is metabolized and exhaled, and carbon dioxide is continually off-gassed, so they don’t form the characteristic inert-gas bubbles seen in DCS. Helium can be involved only in very deep dives using special gas mixes, but for typical situations the primary bubble-forming inert gas is nitrogen.

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