Free UHM Practice Questions

Question 1

A 29-year-old diver loses her regulator at 8 m seawater and makes a breath-holding ascent after 5 minutes underwater. Within a minute of surfacing, she develops aphasia and right-arm weakness. Both resolve after 15 minutes of 100% oxygen. At the receiving hospital, she remains neurologically intact and has a normal chest radiograph. What disposition is appropriate despite her apparent recovery?

Accepted Answer

Arrange urgent therapeutic recompression for presumed cerebral arterial gas embolism.

Answer

Observe on oxygen without recompression because the focal deficits have fully resolved.

Answer

Complete brain MRI before deciding whether there is an indication for recompression.

Answer

Manage as a transient ischemic attack because the dive was too brief for decompression illness.

Question 2

A 66-year-old man with diabetes has a Wagner grade 3 plantar ulcer with metatarsal osteomyelitis. Perfusion is adequate, and six weeks of standard care have included debridement, offloading, nutritional support, glucose management, and culture-directed antibiotics. Over the latest 30 days, ulcer area has decreased from 8.0 to 3.0 cm² and depth from 1.0 to 0.4 cm; the infection is responding. At his first HBO consultation, which conclusion follows from Medicare NCD 20.29?

Accepted Answer

Measurable healing means the required failure of standard wound care has not been demonstrated.

Answer

The Wagner grade establishes diabetic-wound coverage even while the ulcer is measurably improving.

Answer

Remaining open beyond 30 days establishes failed standard care despite the decrease in wound dimensions.

Answer

The osteomyelitis independently establishes coverage as refractory infection despite its response to treatment.

Question 3

A dive team plans to work at 36 m seawater using a cylinder independently analyzed as 32% oxygen. The operation limits inspired oxygen partial pressure during work to 1.4 ATA. Surface pressure is 1 ATA, and each 10 m seawater adds 1 ATA. All other planning requirements are satisfied. Which revision keeps the working exposure within the specified oxygen limit?

Accepted Answer

Reduce the working depth to 32 m while retaining the analyzed 32% oxygen mixture.

Answer

Retain the 36 m depth but halve the bottom time to reduce the peak oxygen partial pressure.

Answer

Retain the 36 m depth but switch to 36% oxygen to reduce the nitrogen fraction.

Answer

Reduce the working depth to 35 m and round the resulting oxygen partial pressure to 1.4 ATA.

Question 4

An experienced diver with insulin-treated diabetes has completed medical clearance under the DAN/UHMS recreational diving protocol. A 40-minute, no-decompression dive to 18 m is planned in warm, calm water without an overhead environment. His informed, nondiabetic buddy, oral rescue glucose, and surface glucagon are ready. Fingerstick glucose values at 60 minutes, 30 minutes, and immediately before entry are 172, 186, and 194 mg/dL. Which advice fits the protocol?

Accepted Answer

Proceed with the planned dive and continue the prescribed glucose monitoring.

Answer

Delay entry until glucose falls below 150 mg/dL to avoid exertion-related hyperglycemia.

Answer

Cancel the dive because treatment with insulin excludes a person from recreational scuba diving.

Answer

Give correction insulin to bring glucose into the 80-120 mg/dL range before entering the water.

Question 5

A woman at 24 weeks of pregnancy develops headache and nausea while a malfunctioning gas heater is operating in her home. After 40 minutes of high-concentration oxygen, she feels well, but venous co-oximetry shows a carboxyhemoglobin concentration of 14%. Her neurologic examination and initial fetal assessment are reassuring. Applying CDC guidance for carbon monoxide poisoning, which plan best accounts for the pregnancy?

Accepted Answer

Continue 100% oxygen and arrange prompt HBO with obstetric assessment.

Answer

Continue normobaric oxygen unless maternal carboxyhemoglobin exceeds 25%.

Answer

Use fetal monitoring to determine treatment, reserving HBO for a persistently abnormal fetal assessment.

Answer

Avoid HBO because therapeutic hyperbaric exposure is contraindicated in pregnancy.

Question 6

During an oxygen-breathing period at 2.4 ATA, a patient in an air-pressurized multiplace chamber develops a generalized tonic-clonic seizure. An inside attendant can immediately remove the oxygen hood. The chamber pressure is stable, and there is no fire or equipment failure. Which response is safest during the active convulsion?

Accepted Answer

Remove the oxygen hood, protect the airway and patient, and maintain chamber pressure.

Answer

Keep the hood in place and rapidly decompress to lower oxygen partial pressure.

Answer

Give an anticonvulsant while continuing oxygen at the same chamber pressure.

Answer

Switch the patient to chamber air and immediately start decompression, even while the tonic phase continues.

Question 7

Five minutes into his first air dive of the week, a 61-year-old man with hypertension develops severe breathlessness and cough while swimming against a current at 12 m. Symptoms begin before any ascent, and neither he nor his buddy reports aspiration or a regulator problem. After a controlled exit, he has pink-tinged frothy sputum, bilateral crackles, and an oxygen saturation of 86%. The combination of timing and pulmonary findings points to:

Accepted Answer

Immersion pulmonary edema

Answer

Water-aspiration pneumonitis

Answer

Pulmonary decompression sickness

Answer

Pulmonary barotrauma with alveolar rupture

Question 8

A 68-year-old man with diabetes is referred for HBO assessment of a nonhealing foot ulcer. His ankle-brachial index is 1.46, but repeat great-toe systolic pressure is 22 mmHg and pedal Doppler waveforms are monophasic. There is no spreading infection or systemic instability. How should these apparently discordant perfusion results change the treatment plan?

Accepted Answer

Obtain urgent vascular assessment for possible revascularization despite the elevated ankle-brachial index.

Answer

Treat the elevated ankle-brachial index as evidence of adequate inflow and continue wound care alone.

Answer

Use in-chamber transcutaneous oxygen testing to decide whether vascular assessment is necessary.

Answer

Start HBO to improve tissue oxygenation before reassessing arterial perfusion after several sessions.

Question 9

After hemorrhage control, a patient who cannot receive red-cell transfusion is receiving HBO as temporary support for severe anemia. At treatment pressure, hemoglobin is 3.0 g/dL, measured SaO2 is 100%, and measured PaO2 is 2,000 mmHg. Use CaO2 = (1.34 x hemoglobin x SaO2) + (0.0031 x PaO2), with SaO2 expressed as a fraction and CaO2 in mL O2/dL. Which interpretation should guide ongoing care?

Accepted Answer

CaO2 is approximately 10.2 mL/dL; dissolved oxygen provides temporary support, but red-cell mass still needs restoration.

Answer

CaO2 is approximately 4.0 mL/dL; hyperbaric exposure adds too little dissolved oxygen to contribute meaningfully.

Answer

CaO2 is approximately 6.2 mL/dL; the hemoglobin-bound contribution can be omitted once plasma oxygen rises.

Answer

CaO2 is approximately 10.2 mL/dL; this establishes adequate oxygen delivery without considering cardiac output or metabolic demand.

Question 10

An inside attendant breathes chamber air while caring for a patient receiving oxygen by hood at 2.8 ATA. The attendant also worked an earlier chamber session that day. Before arranging relief through the personnel lock, the supervisor must select an appropriate attendant decompression schedule. Which exposure record should govern that selection?

Accepted Answer

The attendant's own pressure-time profile, breathing gases, and previous pressure exposures.

Answer

The patient's oxygen schedule, applied to everyone sharing the same pressure.

Answer

The attendant's current pressure-time profile alone, because surfacing after the earlier session reset tissue nitrogen.

Answer

The attendant's accumulated time in the main chamber, excluding time spent pressurized in the personnel lock.

Free UHM Practice Questions

Domain 1: Fundamentals 40% of exam

Question 1

Question 2

Question 3

Question 4

Domain 2: Diving medicine 30.5% of exam

Question 5

Question 6

Domain 3: Clinical hyperbaric medicine 26.5% of exam

Question 7

Question 8

Question 9

Question 10

The rest of the UHM blueprint

That's 10 of 1,030