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Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine, 18e
| Part 19. High-Altitude and Decompression Sickness > |
Chapter e51. Altitude Illness
Sections: Altitude Illness: Introduction, Further Readings.
Topics Discussed: altitude sickness; high altitude.
Excerpt:"Mountains cover one-fifth of the earth's surface; 38 million people live permanently at altitudes  2400 m, and 100 million people travel to high-altitude locations each year. Skiers in Aspen, religious pilgrims to Lhasa, trekkers and climbers to Kilimanjaro or Everest, and military personnel deployed to high-altitude locales are all at risk of developing acute mountain sickness (AMS), high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE), high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE), and other altitude-related problems. AMS is the benign form of altitude illness, whereas HACE and HAPE are life-threatening. Altitude illness is likely to occur above 2500 m but has been documented even at 1500–2500 m.AMS is a neurologic syndrome characterized by nonspecific symptoms (headache, nausea, fatigue, and dizziness) with a paucity of physical findings developing 6–12 h after ascent to a high altitude. AMS must be distinguished from exhaustion, dehydration, hypothermia, alcoholic hangover, and hyponatremia. AMS and HACE are thought to represent opposite ends of a continuum of altitude-related neurologic disorders. HACE (but not AMS) is an encephalopathy whose hallmarks are ataxia and altered consciousness with diffuse cerebral involvement..."
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