Caisson disease

Caisson disease
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. [Webster 1913 Suppl. +PJC]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • caisson disease — Caisson disease, or the bends, as the most prevalent and dangerous ailment of divers or men who work in a compressed air atmosphere is known, results when a diver who has been working under great pressure is too quickly brought to the surface and …   Ballentine's law dictionary

  • caisson disease — ☆ caisson disease n. DECOMPRESSION SICKNESS …   English World dictionary

  • caisson disease — cais·son disease kā .sän , kās ən ; Brit often kə sün n DECOMPRESSION SICKNESS * * * see compressed air illness * * * decompression sickness …   Medical dictionary

  • caisson disease — cais′son disease n. pat decompression sickness • Etymology: 1880–85, amer …   From formal English to slang

  • caisson disease — noun Date: 1873 decompression sickness …   New Collegiate Dictionary

  • caisson disease — aeroembolism (def. 2). [1880 85, Amer.] * * * …   Universalium

  • caisson disease — noun 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. Syn: the bends, decompressio …   Wiktionary

  • caisson disease — noun another term for decompression sickness …   English new terms dictionary

  • caisson disease — see compressed air illness …   The new mediacal dictionary

  • caisson disease — /ˈkeɪsən dəziz/ (say kaysuhn duhzeez) noun See bends …  

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