Article
Article
- Health Sciences
- Medicine and health science - general
- Decompression illness
Decompression illness
Article By:
Goodall, McChesney University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas.
Last reviewed:September 2021
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.182800
A medical disorder in humans that results from a sudden reduction in atmospheric pressure. Decompression illness—also called decompression sickness, dysbarism, caisson disease, the bends, and compressed-air illness—is a physiological condition resulting from the development of nitrogen gas bubbles in the body during a rapid switch from a high-pressure environment to one of lower pressure. Decompression illness is most commonly seen in two groups of subjects: those who rapidly ascend in nonpressurized airplanes to altitudes in excess of 5500 m (18,000 ft); and divers, scuba divers (see illustration), sandhogs (construction or excavation laborers who engage in underwater or underground work), and professional workers in hyperbaric chambers who work under increased ambient pressures and are decompressed. See also: Aerospace medicine; Biophysics; Diving; Hyperbaric oxygen chamber; Nitrogen; Pressure
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