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High Altitude and Common Medical Conditions

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High Altitude

Abstract

Increasing numbers of people are traveling to high altitude for work or pleasure. Given the prevalence of medical conditions in the general population, it is likely that many of these travelers will have one or more underlying medical problems. Unsure of how they will tolerate high altitude, these patients often seek input from their primary care physicians or travel clinical providers to determine if it is safe for them to make such a sojourn and, if so, what precautions should be taken during their trip to avoid problems that might lead to unplanned interruption of their trip. Clinicians faced with these concerns must address whether the underlying medical condition could be adversely affected by the hypoxic environment or alters the traveler’s risk for developing high-altitude illness. This chapter provides information to guide clinicians in answering these questions as they pertain to patients with a wide variety of medical problems including pulmonary diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, and obstructive sleep apnea; cardiac problems including coronary artery diseases, cardiomyopathy, and adult congenital heart diseases; as well as gastrointestinal, endocrine, hematologic, neurologic, and renal disorders. For each disorder we consider the primary challenges faced by those patients at altitude and provide recommendations for pretravel assessment as well as risk mitigation during the trip. The chapter concludes by considering medication use at high altitude and, in particular, whether medications used for treatment of underlying disorders have the potential for adverse interactions with medications used in the prophylaxis and treatment of acute altitude illness and whether the dose and choice of altitude illness medication needs to be altered depending on the patients underlying health issues.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington, 325 Ninth Avenue, 359762, Seattle, WA, 98104, USA

    Andrew M. Luks M.D.

  2. Clinical Professor of Surgery, Division of Emergency Medicine, Department of Surgery, Altitude Research Center, University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, Denver, CO, USA

    Peter H. Hackett M.D.

  3. Institute for Altitude Medicine, 500 W. Pacific Avenue, Telluride, CO, USA

    Peter H. Hackett M.D.

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  1. Andrew M. Luks M.D.
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  2. Peter H. Hackett M.D.
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Correspondence to Andrew M. Luks M.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Washington, VA Puget Sound Health Care System, Seattle, Washington, USA

    Erik R. Swenson

  2. Medical University Clinic, Heidelberg, Germany

    Peter Bärtsch

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Luks, A.M., Hackett, P.H. (2014). High Altitude and Common Medical Conditions. In: Swenson, E., Bärtsch, P. (eds) High Altitude. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8772-2_23

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