Return to High Altitude After Recovery from Coronavirus Disease 2019

Luks, Andrew M. and Colin K. Grissom. Return to high altitude after recovery from coronavirus disease 2019. High Alt Med Biol. 22: 119-127, 2021.-With the increasing availability of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines and the eventual decline in the burden of the disease, it is anticipated that all forms of tourism, including travel to high altitude, will rebound in the near future. Given the physiologic challenges posed by hypobaric hypoxia at high altitude, it is useful to consider whether high-altitude travel will pose risks to those previously infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, particularly those with persistent symptoms after resolution of their infection. Although no studies have specifically examined this question as of yet, available data on the cardiopulmonary sequelae of COVID-19 provide some sense of the problems people may face at high altitude and who warrants evaluation before such endeavors. On average, most individuals who have recovered from COVID-19 have normal or near normal gas exchange, pulmonary function testing, cardiovascular function, and exercise capacity, although a subset of individuals have persistent functional deficits in some or all of these domains when examined up to 5 months after infection. Evaluation is warranted before planned high-altitude travel in individuals with persistent symptoms at least 2 weeks after a positive test or hospital discharge as well as in those who required care in an intensive care unit or suffered from myocarditis or arterial or venous thromboembolism. Depending on the results of this testing, planned high-altitude travel may need to be modified or even deferred pending resolution of the identified abnormalities. As more people travel to high altitude after the pandemic and further studies are conducted, additional data should become available to provide further guidance on these issues.