Clinical Pathways
Clinical Pathways
High-Altitude Illness
High-Altitude Illness

High-Altitude Illness

Tags
Emerg. Med. Practice
Published
September 1, 2021
Author(s)
Ninad A. Shroff, MD, FAAEM; Jerome Balbin, MD; Oluwaseun Shobitan, MD

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Decision

Is the patient presenting with symptoms of acute mountain sickness (AMS) at altitude higher than patient’s baseline altitude?

No

Consider other diagnosis; high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE) and high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE) can occur without acute mountain sickness (AMS), but this is rare.

Background

High altitude illness (HAI) is a continuum of pulmonary and neurologic syndromes during travel to altitude that is seen exclusively in nonacclimatized individuals. HAI includes acute mountain sickness (AMS), high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE), and high-altitude pulmonary edema (HAPE). (See Table 1.) While most manifestations of these syndromes occur at altitudes above 2500 meters, they can also be encountered at lower elevations. In fact, the 2019 update of the Wilderness Medical Society Clinical Practice Guidelines emphasizes that a diagnosis of HAI should not be excluded at altitudes <2500 m; however, at lower altitudes, HAI tends to be a diagnosis of exclusion.3^3

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References
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