[Positive barotrauma of the stomach (author's transl)]

Abstract

A 22-year-old sports diver had dived to a depth of 40 m in a Tyrolian mountain-lake and had to be taken to hospital because of an acute pneumoperitoneum. At the laparotomy a complete rupture of the stomach along the lesser curvature was found and closed operatively. This rupture of the stomach could have been caused only by an extension of the compressed breathing-air swallowed in the depth according to the change of hydrostatic pressure. Experimental examinations revealed that these rupture of the stomach will always be caused within the small curvature by an overpressure ranging between 96 mm and 145 mm Hg or a filling volume of1700 ml to 2200 ml respectively. Moreover,a cardia closing similar to a pressure valve and accompanied by radial ruptures of the mucosa could be observed, within the range of cardia, when the pressure in the stomach had rapidly increased.