[Medical use of stepwise adaptation to hypoxia]

The paper outlines N. N. Sirotinin's concept of the use of stepwise adaptation to diminished inspired air pO2 as a non-drug agent for the prevention and treatment of diseases whose pathogenesis hypoxia and their subsequent rehabilitation play a definite role in. A comprehensive study of the impact of reduced pO2 on man and animals has defined the magnitude of its ambient air changes under which a human being may adapt himself to hypoxia, it characterized five stages of hypoxic hypoxia and concluded that an adaptative process is effective in subcompensated and compensated hypoxia. The paper describes the stepwise adaptation proposed by N. N. Sirotinin to treat diseases chiefly caused by hypoxia and his three identified stages of adaptation-a process considered by N. N. Sirotinin and his pupils as a natural response of the respiratory functional system to the changing magnitude of the usually acting stimuli-reduced arterial blood oxygen and carbon dioxide tension. The mechanisms responsible for the favourable impact of stepwise hypoxic adaptation, which are the basis for its wide use in medicine, occupational hygiene, and sports are presented. Data on the development of N. N. Sirotinin's idea and its medical application in Russia and foreign countries are given.