[Barotrauma in diving].

Boyle's law is important for the understanding of the pathophysiology of barotrauma. Barotrauma--any disease or injury due to unequal pressures between a hollow space inside the body and the ambient pressure, or between two spaces within the body; examples include arterial gas embolism, pneumomediastinum, and pneumothorax. It may affect the lungs, the middle ear, the inner ear, the external ear, the eyes, the teeth, the gastrointestinal tract, the skin. Symptoms remain the same whether it all happens during ascent or descent.