Terminology and classification of acute mountain sickness.

Abstract

There are several unsolved questions about acute mountain sickness. Climbers and trekkers want to know how to recognise cases, how to assess their severity, and how to act to avoid deaths. They also need clear guidance about prevention, a subject that has stimulated much correspondence after recent articles.1 2 Medical scientists who are called on to advise on these matters have many fascinating puzzles about the nature of acclimatisation and the disordered physiology that leads to the various manifes- tations of acute mountain sickness.