A Sauerbruch chamber, is a hermetically sealed chamber where surgical operations of the thorax are carried out, preventing complication by elevating or reducing air pressure. It was developed by the German surgeon Ferdinand Sauerbruch and first used in 1904. In the Sauerbruch chamber the patient's head is elided, sticking out of the glass-chamber. The surgical team works inside the chamber that hermetically seals the body of the patient. To start the operation on the thorax a vacuum of 1/10 Bar is generated in the chamber, preventing the patient's lungs from collapsing upon opening the thorax.