title: High-Altitude Medicine.
abstract: Individuals may seek the advice of medical providers when considering travel to high altitude. This article provides a basic framework for counseling and evaluating such patients. After defining "high altitude" and describing the key environmental features at higher elevations, the physiologic changes that occur at high altitude and how these changes are experienced by the traveler are discussed. Clinical features and strategies for prevention and treatment of the main forms of acute altitude illness are outlined, and frameworks for approaching the common clinical scenarios that may be encountered regarding high-altitude travelers are provided.
authors.affiliation: Critical Care Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington, 325 Ninth Avenue, Box 359762, Seattle, WA 98104, USA.
authors.forename: Nicholas J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.affiliation: Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington, 325 Ninth Avenue, Box 359762, Seattle, WA 98104, USA. Electronic address: aluks@u.washington.edu.
authors.forename: Andrew M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Luks
mesh_terms: D000532:Altitude Sickness / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D001929:Brain Edema / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D011654:Pulmonary Edema / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D012307:Risk Factors; D014195:Travel
keywords: Acute altitude illness; Acute mountain sickness; High altitude; High-altitude cerebral edema; High-altitude pulmonary edema; Prevention