Summary:
Every year millions of people travel to high altitude and visiting recreational
areas in the Himalayas, the Alps, the Rockies, the Andes ... Moreover,
thousands of people who love adventure climb to the tops of the world testing
the limits of human endurance. As barometric pressure decreases, the pressure
of O2 is reduced accordingly, constantly staying slightly below 21% of
barometric pressure. At the top of Mount Everest, at an altitude of 8848
meters, the atmospheric pressure decreases from 760 mm Hg at sea level to 253
mm Hg and arterial P02 from 95 mm Hg to 35 mm Hg. If a healthy person is
exposed to these conditions directly, will quickly lose consciousness and will
probably suffer severe hypoxic brain damage. The fact that people can, with
proper preparation, to survive and operate in these extreme heights has
fascinated scientists for centuries. Ongoing challenges created by the study of
motion in a mountainous area led to the development in recent years of
Altitude Medicine for understanding, preventing and treating a condition known
as altitude illness.
In recent years, the scope of research into high altitude has widened
considerably. The altitude medicine has become a "natural research laboratory"
for the study of cardiovascular physiology and pathophysiology. Knowledge of
these studies have already been in the bed of patients who have problems
hypoxia at low altitude, certainly not because of lack of oxygen, but as a
result of hypoxia due to failure of some organ, usually the heart or lungs.
Keywords:
High altitude medicine, High altitude sickness, Mountain medicine, A historical view of mountain medicine, Scientific missions at high altitude
