Edema pulmonar de gran altura

Abstract

High altitude diseases are originated from brain and lung. The first are Acute Mountain Sickness and Brain edema and the second is High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE). Current evidence shows that brain edema is an universal event of the people who are exposed to high altitude. By other hand 3 out of 4 healthy subjects exposed to high altitude will present a subclinical HAPE. Hypoxia of altitude is the responsable for this condition. The susceptible subjects would be those who genetically have a low ventilatory response to hypoxia and an exaggerated increase of vascular pulmonary pressure during exercise. A clinical case of acute pulmonary edema in a young sportman who participated in an expedition to Cerro El Plomo (5.280 m) in Chilean Central Andes Mountains is presented. Pathophysiology and treatment of these conditions are discussed