Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology, Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC U.S.
Thomas Lord Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, Durham, NC U.S.
Undersea Hyperb Med. 2022 First Quarter;49(1):29-42.
A recent rise in snorkeling-related deaths in Hawaii has inspired several bans on full face snorkel masks (FFSMs). However, while there are theories to explain the deaths, little physiological data exists about the way the FFSMs provide gas to an exercising subject. To evaluate the safety of the FFSM concept, this study was designed to test how use of a full face snorkel mask (FFSM) may be physiologically different than use of a conventional snorkel, and to assess if any of those differences could lead to increased risk for the snorkeler. Ten (10) volunteer human subjects were tested using a variety of commercially available FFSMs, with real-time monitoring of blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), inspired airway pressure, and inspired and expired levels of carbon dioxide and oxygen. Two of the three FFSM design types were shown not to function as advertised, but none of the masks provided physiologically problematic gas supplies to the snorkelers. While this testing yielded no conclusive "smoking gun" to explain the snorkeler deaths, some of the mask models showed patterns of increasing breathing resistance with water intrusion because of a shared design characteristic, and this increased resistance could potentially create elevated levels of respiratory distress to snorkelers during real-world use.
最近在夏威夷发生的几起与浮潜相关的死亡事件促使当局对全脸式 snorkel 面罩（FFSM）实施了多项禁令。然而，尽管有一些理论可以解释这些死亡事件，但关于 FFSM 为运动中的受试者提供气体的方式，几乎没有生理学数据。为了评估 FFSM 概念的安全性，本研究旨在测试使用全脸式 snorkel 面罩（FFSM）在生理学上可能与使用传统 snorkel 有何不同，并评估这些差异是否会增加 snorkeler 的风险。本研究使用各种市售的 FFSM 对 10 名志愿者进行了测试，实时监测血氧饱和度（SpO2）、吸入气道压力以及二氧化碳和氧气的吸入和呼出水平。结果显示，三种 FFSM 设计类型中有两种不能按宣传的那样工作，但没有一种面罩为 snorkeler 提供了有问题的气体供应。虽然这项测试没有得出确凿的“确凿证据”来解释 snorkeler 的死亡原因，但一些面罩模型显示出由于共享设计特征而导致的进水时呼吸阻力增加的模式，这种增加的阻力在实际使用中可能会给 snorkeler 带来更高水平的呼吸窘迫。
