title: Medical limitations to wilderness travel.
abstract: Medical conditions may be exacerbated by environmental stresses or may limit tolerance to them. To advise patients who are planning foreign or wilderness travel of potential health risks, medical providers must first understand the interactions between physiologic demands from environmental factors and from exercise, and the patient's medical problems. This article considers medical limitations owing to specific environmental stresses and limitations imposed by specific medical problems. The challenge is to match the prospective participant with the proposed activity to minimize the risk of failure caused by medical problems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency and Sports Medicine, Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, Hayward, California, USA.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Backer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008403:Mass Screening; D008487:Medical History Taking; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D018579:Patient Selection; D012307:Risk Factors; D014195:Travel