Decompression sickness practices in lobster diving among the indigenous Miskito people, who face great economic pressures. At that time it was estimated that in the country over 2000 divers had been injured and 300 others had died since the 1970s. In the United States, it is common for medical insurance not to cover treatment for the bends that is the result of recreational diving. This is because scuba diving is considered an elective and "high-risk" activity and treatment for decompression sickness is expensive. A typical stay in a recompression chamber will easily cost several thousand dollars, even before emergency transportation is included.
Decompression sickness determine whether dissolved gas is taken up by tissue bubbles or circulation bubbles for bubble growth. The primary provoking agent in decompression sickness is bubble formation from excess dissolved gases. Various hypotheses have been put forward for the nucleation and growth of bubbles in tissues, and for the level of supersaturation which will support bubble growth. The earliest bubble formation detected is subclinical intravascular bubbles detectable by doppler ultrasound in the venous systemic circulation. The presence of these "silent" bubbles is no guarantee that they will persist and grow to be symptomatic. Vascular bubbles formed in the systemic capillaries may