Plain English Meaning
A sealed room or tube where a patient is placed under higher-than-normal air pressure while breathing pure oxygen. The extra pressure shrinks the gas bubbles in their body that are causing symptoms, allowing them to be safely absorbed and breathed out.
Full Definition
A sealed pressure vessel in which a person breathes 100 percent oxygen at pressures greater than normal atmospheric pressure, used to treat decompression sickness and related conditions by forcing nitrogen bubbles in the body to dissolve and be flushed out through normal breathing.
Context Anchor
Seen in high-altitude physiology, decompression sickness, and medical treatment discussions.