Fulminant high altitude blindness.
Prolonged altitude exposure even with acclimatization continues to present a physiological challenge to all organ systems including the central nervous system. We describe a case of a 41-year-old Caucasian female climber who suffered severe visual loss that was due to possible optic nerve pathology occurring during a high altitude expedition in the Himalayas. This case is atypical of classic high altitude cerebral oedema and highlights yet another danger of prolonged sojourn at extreme altitudes.
Lecturer of the Department of Sports Medicine and Medical Rehabilitation, Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia emash@me.com.
Evgeny
E
Mashkovskiy
Wexham Park Hospital, Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine, Slough, UK.
Piotr
P
Szawarski
"The FIS Center" Ophthalmology Clinic, Moscow, Russia.
Pavel
P
Ryzhkov
Department of Intensive Care Medicine, University Medical centre Ljubljana, Zaloška 2, Ljubljana, 1000 Slovenija.
Tomaz
T
Goslar
College of Environmental Protection, Associate Prof. in Geography, Trg mladosti 7, Velenje 3320, Slovenia.
Irena
I
Mrak
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D000532:Altitude Sickness / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis; D001766:Blindness / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D001929:Brain Edema / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009051:Mountaineering; D009390:Nepal; D012307:Risk Factors
: Mountain medicine; HACE; blindness; high altitude