NANOSNET

I recently saw a patient who posed an interesting question. He is a 67 year old man with NAION. Risk factors may include a history of sleep apnea (started using a CPAP machine a few months ago), previous use of Semaglutide which he was started on earlier this year and stopped taking several weeks prior to vision loss, and a disc at risk. He is an avid scuba diver and asked me whether I thought diving would increase his risk of recurrent NAION. He then more specifically asked me whether I thought depth mattered, and reminded me that for every 33 feet of descent, atmospheres of pressure increase by 1. Fortunately he doesn't have any upcoming trips planned and his disc edema is nearly resolved, but I wasn't sure beyond that whether this could be problematic for him. He had gone diving 4-6 weeks prior to the vision loss and I did not think that was related. I'm curious how others would counsel this patient. Thanks!

- Ola Pietraszkiewicz

I recently saw a patient who posed an interesting question. He is a 67 year old man with NAION. Risk factors may include a history of sleep apnea (started using a CPAP machine a few months ago), previous use of Semaglutide which he was started on earlier this year and stopped taking several weeks prior to vision loss, and a disc at risk. He is an avid scuba diver and asked me whether I thought diving would increase his risk of recurrent NAION. He then more specifically asked me whether I thought depth mattered, and reminded me that for every 33 feet of descent, atmospheres of pressure increase by 1. Fortunately he doesn't have any upcoming trips planned and his disc edema is nearly resolved, but I wasn't sure beyond that whether this could be problematic for him. He had gone diving 4-6 weeks prior to the vision loss and I did not think that was related. I'm curious how others would counsel this patient. Thanks!

- Ola Pietraszkiewicz