Breath-Hold Diving Symposium
Call for Research Abstracts

Intro | Overview | Topics | Speakers | Call for Abstracts | Registration

The Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS) and Divers Alert Network (DAN) (joint sponsors) are pleased to announce this call for abstracts for the 2006 breath-hold diving workshop to be held in conjunction with the UHMS annual scientific meeting in Orlando, Florida.

The two-day workshop will consider the physiology, performance and health and safety of breath-hold diving. The focus will include both recreational and competitive breath-hold diving and the most recent scientific developments.

The workshop will include both scheduled speakers and free communications. Those wishing to participate in the free communications sessions are required to submit abstracts for review.

Abstracts should be no more than 300 words (excluding title, author[s] and affiliation lines) structured into standard sections (introduction, methods, results and conclusions). The results section should include actual findings with specific data and their statistical significance. No figures or tables are allowed. The abstract should emphasize novel and important aspects of the study or observations.

Abstracts will be accepted after January 1, 2006. The deadline for abstract submission is February 28, 2006. Abstracts will be reviewed and first authors informed of the review decision by March 31. Authors of accepted abstracts will be required to submit extended abstracts by May 31 to be published in the proceedings of the meeting.

Extended abstracts will be 600-800 words (excluding title, author[s] and affiliation lines). The standard sections are the same as for the abstract, with the addition of a discussion section following the results.

Instructions for Abstract Preparation

Abstracts should be prepared with word processing software with minimal formatting and no automated functions. Files must be compatible with MS Word, the font 11 pitch Times New Roman. The title line(s) should be bold in block caps; left-justified. The author line(s) should be mixed upper and lower case, surname followed by first and middle initials (no periods with initials) with multiple authors separated by commas; left-justified. The author affiliation line(s) should include division, institution, city, state and country if not the US; left-justified. The body of the abstract (fully justified) should follow after a blank line. Section headers (mixed case, bold, followed by colon) should start the paragraph of each section (no indenting, no blank lines between paragraphs). A line acknowledging funding sources may follow the body. Abstracts should not include figures, tables or illustrations. A sample abstract follows:

A REVIEW OF AVAILABLE BREATH-HOLD INCIDENT RECORDS: 1994-2003
Pollock NW^1,2, Wiley JL^1,2, Ellis JE^2
1Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology, Duke University Medical Center; ²Divers Alert Network, Durham, NC.

INTRODUCTION: Breath-hold diving is gaining popularity as an underwater sport. Serious injury or death can result from hypoxic loss of consciousness or other complications. Development of a formal program to collect and disseminate information regarding breath-hold injuries and fatalities is desirable to improve awareness, training, and procedural development.
METHODS: The Divers Alert Network (DAN) has maintained a diving incident database since 1987. While breath-hold/freediving/snorkeling incidents fall outside the original database structure, some cases have been reported to DAN. The available records for 1994-2003 incidents were augmented through internet searches and reviewed. Described activities included snorkeling, spearfishing, abalone diving, breath-hold training, and recreational and competitive freediving.
RESULTS: 131 cases contained sufficient data for basic analysis. Comprehensive records were available from rare high profile events. Most cases (98%, n=128) involved fatalities. The three injury cases included one shark attack, one crocodile attack and one near-drowning. Incidents were reported from 16 countries, 78% (n=101) occurring within the United States. Most victims were male (88%, n=110; data available in 95% of cases). The mean (±SD) age of victims was 38±16 years in the 77 cases (59%) with age information. Bodies were recovered in 96% (n=123) of fatal incidents. Recovery depth ranged from 0-406 ft (median = 30 ft) in the 28 cases (21%) with available data.
CONCLUSIONS: While a small number of high profile fatality cases may be widely reported, limited information is available for most breath-hold accidents. Non-fatal incidents are rarely reported. Data from both fatal and non-fatal cases would provide valuable information to improve awareness, facilitate training and promote procedural evaluations. DAN incorporated a review of available breath-hold data in the 2005 annual report and will encourage regular collection of incident data in the future.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT: JL Wiley was supported by the DAN research internship program.

Disclosure statements will be required to accompany submissions.

Submit Abstract for Consideration

PROCEEDINGS

Proceedings will be published following the meeting. This publication will include full papers by scheduled speakers, extended abstracts for free communications, and edited text of the workshop discussions.