Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
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 English) A sometimes fatal condition resulting from the formation of nitrogen bubbles in the blood and tissues, because of too rapid decompression, seen especially in deep-sea divers ascending rapidly from a dive. It is characterized by severe pains in the joints and chest, skin irritation, cramps, nausea, and paralysis.
WordNet
n. pain resulting from rapid change in pressure [syn: aeroembolism, air embolism, gas embolism, caisson disease, bends]
Wikipedia
Decompression sickness (DCS; also known as divers' disease, the bends or caisson disease) describes a condition arising from dissolved gases coming out of solution into bubbles inside the body on depressurisation. DCS most commonly refers to problems arising from underwater diving decompression (i.e., during ascent), but may be experienced in other depressurisation events such as working in a caisson, flying in unpressurised aircraft, and extravehicular activity from spacecraft.
Since bubbles can form in or migrate to any part of the body, DCS can produce many symptoms, and its effects may vary from joint pain and rashes to paralysis and death. Individual susceptibility can vary from day to day, and different individuals under the same conditions may be affected differently or not at all. The classification of types of DCS by its symptoms has evolved since its original description over a hundred years ago.
Exposure to DCS on diving can be managed through proper decompression procedures and contracting it is now uncommon. Its potential severity has driven much research to prevent it and divers universally use dive tables or dive computers to limit their exposure and to control their ascent speed. If DCS is contracted, it is treated by hyperbaric oxygen therapy in a recompression chamber. If treated early, there is a significantly higher chance of successful recovery.
DCS is a subset of Decompression illness (DCI) which includes both DCS and Arterial gas embolism (AGE).
Usage examples of "decompression sickness".
If faced with the same situation, he would have to be careful to make a controlled 18-meter (60-foot) per-minute ascent to avoid decompression sickness.
One of them was badly injured to the extent he couldn't be moved and needed medical care urgently for decompression sickness and unspecified internal organ damage.
The biggest danger to both of us was decompression sickness, so I followed the computer, breathed off of Clay's rescue supply when I ran out, and nobody got hurt.
The basis behind decompression sickness, or what is known as the bends, is that under normal air pressure the body respires most of its excess nitrogen.
They're not even sure he's going to make ithypothermia and decompression sickness.
Then she remembered that if she stayed in the suit for more than a few minutes she would get decompression sickness: the bends.
Rhennin said, 'Look, John, those blotches mean decompression sickness.
Sid is flying low as he can so your decompression sickness won’.
Without them, the accumulation of compressed nitrogen in the blood could result in decompression sickness upon a return to the surface.
And as far as decompression sickness went, that was something he’.
There would be bleeding in the major joints now, because the nitrogen bubbles tended to collect there for one reason or another, and the instinctive reaction of decompression sickness was to curl up in a ball, from which had come the original name for the malady, 'the bends.
And no one knew that a by-product of dwarf flatulence was a methane-producing bacterium called Methanobrevibacter smithii, which prevented decompression sickness in deep-sea divers.