Introduction: Dysbaric accidents (DA) are usually referred to continuous air-supplied dives. Nonetheless, diving accidents are known to occur also among breath-hold (BH) divers. BH diving accidents include the rare Taravana syndrome (TS) which firstly described by Cross in 1965. He reported professional BH pearl divers in the Tuamoto Archipelago, in the South Pacific. Paulev also Found TS in Danish military personnel previously exposed to pressure during submarine escape training. In the same year, using the U.S Navy no-decompression limits Lanphier calculated the likelihood of developing decompression sickness after repetitive breath-hold dives using specific parameters such as average diving time, depth and surface intervals.
Methods: This article is a review Article, According to all articles, textbooks, guidelines and documentation about Challenges in Military Breath-Hold Diving.
Results: Often called "Taravana" it presents as a complex clinical picture characterized by different combinations of complete or partial neurological disorders as nausea, euphoria, hemiparesis, visual problems, hearing impairment, dysarthria, crossed sensory numbness and minor symptoms such as nausea, dizziness, vertigo, headache and unconsciousness, and even sudden death, after repetitive BH dives with short surface intervals. In some cases the symptoms were sudden, occurring as the divers left the water, whereas in other cases they appeared 1-2 h later, depending on the dive profile. Its predisposing factors are unclear. Although some cases have been reported in the literature, the pathophysiology and the predisposing factors of this syndrome are still unclear. Even if the genesis of these particular TS cases is still doubtful, the inert gas accumulation cannot be excluded. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is the choice treatment for TS.
Conclusion: TS is the critical threat in military BH divers with repetitive shallow water diving during Marine environment conflicts. So, havingenough information and skills for prevention, approach and treatment of TS are mandatory in military divers, military and civil medical crew.
Keywords: Military, Breath-Hold Diving, Taravana Syndrome