High-Altitude Illness: Updates in Prevention, Identification, and Treatment

Points & Pearls Excerpt

• High-altitude illness (HAI) is a continuum of pulmonary and neurologic syndromes that can occur in nonacclimatized individuals, typically (though not exclusively) with travel to altitudes >2500 m.
• HAI includes acute mountain sickness (AMS), high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE), and high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE).
• HAI is caused by hypobaric hypoxia, which affects ventilation, fluid retention, cerebral blood flow, and the autonomic nervous system. In HAPE, hypobaric hypoxia causes noncardiogenic pulmonary edema.⁴
• Symptoms of HAI most commonly develop 6 to 12 hours after ascent to altitude, though they can occur up to 5 days after ascent.