ABSTRACT
Pulmonary barotrauma (PBT) of ascent is the most serious of the barotraumas, and it causes concern in all types of diving operations. It is a clinical manifestation of Boyle’s Law because it aects the lungs and results from overdistension and rupture of the pulmonary tissue by expanding gases during ascent. It can occur in compressed air divers, submariners undertaking escape ascent training, hyperbaric patients during decompression and airline passengers during ascent to altitude (though the last two situations are rare and invariably associated with gastrapping disease in the lung).
