The Collaborative International Dictionary
Caisson disease \Cais"son dis*ease"\ (Med.) A disease frequently induced by remaining for some time in an atmosphere of high pressure, as in caissons, diving bells, etc. It is characterized by neuralgic pains and paralytic symptoms. It is caused by the release of bubbles of gas, usually nitrogen, from bodily fluids into the blood and tissues, when a person, having been in an environment with high air pressure, moves to a lower pressure environment too rapidly for the excess dissolved gases to be released through normal breathing. It may be fatal, but can be reversed or alleviated by returning the affected person to a high air pressure, and then gradually decreasing the pressure to allow the gases to be released from the body fluids. It is a danger well known to divers. It is also called the bends and decompression sickness. It can be prevented in divers by a slow return to normal pressure, or by using a breathing mixture of oxygen combined with a gas having low solubility in water, such as helium.
Wiktionary
n. (context pathology nautical English) The painful condition in which bubbles of nitrogen form in body tissues after a person makes too-rapid a transition from high atmospheric pressure to lower atmospheric pressure.
WordNet
n. pain resulting from rapid change in pressure [syn: decompression sickness, aeroembolism, air embolism, gas embolism, bends]
Usage examples of "caisson disease".
He's suffering from what used to be called caisson disease -- and hell never recover from it.
That is how he learned about caisson disease, and how he learned the rule of thumb that most men will not suffer its symptoms if you have them decompress for a while at half the original air pressure.
I would like to spend the time educating you on the subject of caisson disease, also known as the bends.
From the way he's holding his chest and legs it would seem to be caisson disease.
They gave him thirty minutes of conditioning against the caisson disease while Blake looked on with expressionless Silence.