decompression

[dee-kuh m-presh-uh n]

noun

the gradual reduction in atmospheric pressure experienced by divers, construction workers, etc., after working in deep water or breathing compressed air.
the act or process of releasing from pressure.
Surgery. the procedure of relieving increased cranial, cardiac, or orbital pressure.

a state of relief from pressure; a return to normalcy after a stressful period or situation.
Computers. the restoration of data that has undergone compression to its original state.

Origin of decompression

1900–05; probably < French décompression. See de-, compression

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Deprived of oxygen by the decompression, the flight test crew had to grab for oxygen masks.
The Exemplary Plane at the Heart of the MH370 Mystery
Clive Irving
March 27, 2014

With Tom, it was only a matter of decompression and he soon was up and about.
Tom Swift and the Electronic Hydrolung
Victor Appleton
If the skull fracture happened in a uremic, the decompression would probably do no harm.
Arteriosclerosis and Hypertension:
Louis Marshall Warfield
Going deeper would mean stopping for decompression on the way up.
The Wailing Octopus
Harold Leland Goodwin
The carburetor flushes his blood with oxygen, the decompression tank adjusts him to the lack of air-pressure.
Sjambak
John Holbrook Vance
Thank heavens, he was taken to the decompression chamber instead of the police station!
Signal in the Dark
Mildred A. Wirt

1905, from de- + compression.

decompression in Medicine

(dē′kəm-prĕsh′ən)

The relief of pressure on a body part by surgery.
The restoration of deep-sea divers and caisson workers to atmospheric pressure by means of a decompression chamber.