[High-altitude illness in emergency room : what should we do?]

In Switzerland, most of the emergency stations receive patients with high altitude caused illnesses. The most commons ones are acute mountain sickness, high-altitude cerebral edema and high-altitude pulmonary edema. These sicknesses are caused by a dysregulation of altitude adaptating mechanism While acute mountain sickness spontaneously improves upon arrival at lower altitudes, high-altitude cerebral and pulmonary edema present with non-specific neurological or respiratory symptoms, with a wide differential diagnosis, and require specific management.