High Altitude Medicine: A Case-Based Approach

High-altitude illness is a collective term for a cluster of acute clinical syndromes that directly consequence from rapid ascent to high altitude, viz., above 2500 m.  The acute syndromes affecting the brain include acute mountain sickness (AMS) and high-altitude cerebral edema (HACE). The current practice of high altitude medicine requires a deep knowledge of existing evidence. However, knowledge of the field is continuously evolving, and there are many gaps in the existing literature as well as areas of controversy despite existing research in the area. 

Each chapter begins with a real case from the author's clinical practice. After each case, a question is asked to allow the reader to reflect on clinical management before reading the answer and consolidating knowledge from experts in the field. They also focus on the standard practice of management and diagnosis, emphasizing evidence-based care when available as well as areas of uncertainty andactive debate in the medical literature.

Written by experts in the field, High Altitude Medicine offers the most up-to-date knowledge about high altitude medicine that is not only useful for physicians at high altitude dedicated centers but also medical providers at different levels of their careers, especially emergency and urgent care physicians who are the ones that initially see the patient. 

Dr. Jorge Hidalgo is a Professor of Critical Care and he is the Head of the Division of Critical Care at Belize Healthcare Partners, Central America. Dr Hidalgo is also the President-Elect of the World Federation of Societies of Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine. Dr. Hidalgo awarded with the highest recognition the American College of Physician offers to his members in 2012:  “Master of the American College of Physician." For the last decade, he is the Director of the very prestigious ACP Review Course host by the Paraguay Society of Internal Medicine. Due to his outstanding contribution to the Society of Critical Care Medicine: For the last ten consecutive years, He received the Presidential Citation Award.  Most recently, He also got the Global Safar Award, and in 2016 the American College of Critical Care awarded him with the Master of the American College of Critical Care. Dr. Hidalgo became the First Latin American Intensivist to get this Award. He is fellow of the American College of Chest Physician, and he is an author of several chapters and Books on Critical Care Medicine, the two most recent publication with springer: Critical Care Administration and highly Infectious disease in Critical Care. He is the Editor of the FCCS Tropical, and he actively participates in the reviewing of the MCCRC, FCCS, FCCS Obstetrics and FCCS surgical for the society of Critica Care Medicine (SCCM).  Dr. Hidalgo is a member and one of the authors of the most recently Surviving Sepsis Campaign.  He is a regular international speaker.

Dr. Sabrina Da Re Gutierrez was Professor of Pathophysiology at Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz-Bolivia; Professor of Critical Care Medicine in the Medical Residency Program at Caja Nacional de Salud, Bolivia and Head of the Critical Care Division at the Materno infantil Hospital, in La Paz, Bolivia. Besides, she was National Hospitals Chief and Regional Administrator of the Caja Nacional de Salud, Bolivia. Adviser for the Ministry of Health and the United Nations Development Programme, Bolivia. She was also President at Sociedad Boliviana de Medicina Crítica y Terapia Intensiva Filial La Paz, Bolivia. She is fellow of the American College of Critical Care Medicine. For the last decade Dr. Da Re promotes the Point-of-Care Ultrasonography, Multiprfessional Critical Care Medicine (MCCRC) and the Disaster Management (FDM). Dr. Sabrina Da Re is also author of several national standards, treatment guides, chapters, books and scientific publications on Critical Care Medicine. Her three most recent collegiate publications are: “Fisiología Respiratoria en ‘Bases Fisiopatológicas de la Medicina’” (Bogotá-Colombia), “Cuidados Generales en el Manejo del Traumatismo Craneoencefálico Grave: Consenso Latinoamericano” (Spain), “Ecografía en la Paciente Obstétrica” (México).

Dr. Antonio Joao Gandra d’Almeida is a doctor in the Portuguese Armed Forces, with areas of interest in general surgery, critical care patients, emergency and catastrophe. He is invited professor of Coimbra university. He has a European Masters in Catastrophe, is a Fellow of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a Trainer of several courses in his areas of interest and an Editor of FCCS Surgical who has collaborated on several books. Is the North regional director of the Portuguese National Institute of Medical Emergency.