Ethanol treatment for acute decompression sickness in rabbits.

Rabbits developed acute decompression sickness after staying at 6 ATA for 30 min followed by decompression to 1 ATA in 20 min or less. If the rabbits received an i.v. injection of 25% ethanol upon surfacing, all survived, whereas half the untreated control group died within 15-35 min after decompressing. In ethanol-treated animals, no bubbles were seen in blood vessels of visceral organs, muscles, and subcutaneous tissues at autopsy 60 min after treatment. Decompression reduced platelet counts markedly in all rabbits, but in the control group the count stayed low, whereas with ethanol treatment the counts had reached the precompression level after 1 h and 24 h.