Five tissue compartments were chosen, with half times of 5, 10, 20, 40 and 75 minutes.

Values for critical supersaturation derived from this experimental work were different for each tissue compartment.

Each tissue compartment is assumed to fully saturate/desaturate in 6 half times.

In contrast, invasive carcinoma does not confine itself to the initial tissue compartment.

The length of the stops is also strongly influenced by which tissue compartments are assessed as highly saturated.

Most decompression models work with slow and fast tissue compartments.

Models with from one to 16 tissue compartments have been used to generate decompression tables.

A specific tissue compartment will have different half times for gases with different solubilities and diffusion rates.

It is also assumed that there is no gas transfer between tissue compartments by diffusion.

He suggested 5 tissue compartments with half times of 5, 10, 20, 40 and 75 minutes.