To top of page What is caisson disease?
Caisson disease is usually called decompression illness. Decompression illness can occur when you stay under water for too long and/or if you ascend too quickly after a dive. During a dive, a diver breathes compressed air, which consists of 80% nitrogen and 20% oxygen. Oxygen is processed by the human body, but nitrogen isn’t, which means that all the nitrogen you inhale, you will have to exhale again at some point to get rid of it. Normally, this isn’t a problem, but when diving you encounter differences in pressure under water: the deeper you go, the higher the pressure. And the higher the pressure, the more nitrogen the human body can absorb. So, after a diving for a while, the body has absorbed a large amount of nitrogen. During the ascent, the pressure decreases and the body needs to get rid of the surplus nitrogen. If you ascend too quickly, the nitrogen is released in the form of bubbles, and this is called decompression illness. This effect can be compared to opening a bottle o
