ABSTRACT

Acute mountain sickness (AMS) is a common high altitude illness that affects people who have traveled over 2400m above sea level. We used the Lake Louise Survey (LLS) to diagnose AMS in a group of athletes with disabilities. A total of 122 eligible subjects were recruited in 2007 and 2008 at the National Veterans Winter Sports Clinic (NVWSC) in Snowmass, CO. We hypothesized that individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) would have a higher occurrence of AMS than other subject groups. While we did not find a significantly higher occurrence in this group, there was a trend toward higher scores, higher percentages of subjects diagnosed, and more severe scores in people with paraplegia and amputations. While central neurological injury may not be associated with higher occurrence rates of AMS, high physical activity levels such as downhill skiing in these those with paraplegia and amputations may explain the trend. Future work is needed to enroll more subjects, particularly people with amputations or tetraplegia. High occurrence rates across all subject groups point to the need to diagnose, treat, and prophylax for AMS in veterans at high altitude.