[Acute high altitude reaction syndrome and systemic inflammatory response syndrome]

Critical care medicine (CCM) is one of the challenging issue in clinical practice. The key issues of CCM include acute lung injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and multiple organ dysfunction syndrome (MODS), generally termed as systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS). When SIRS occurs at high altitude areas (H-SIRS), it will need be distinguished with an idiopathic acute high altitude sickness (generally termed as acute high altitude reaction syndrome), that make the differential diagnosis and treatment of H-SIRS even more difficult. It has became a high priority to properly address the relevant issues in this field: construction of disciplines; identification of speciality scopes; standardization of the diagnosis and treatment of CCM; and decreasing of the mortality of MODS at high altitude.