TY - JOUR AU - Karki, Poojyashree AU - Sijapati, Milesh Jung AU - Pandey, Minalma AU - Khadka, Nirupama PY - 2019/06/20 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Ocular Presentations in High Altitude Sickness: Experience of Our Centre JF - Nepalese Medical Journal JA - Nep. Med. J. VL - 2 IS - 1 SE - Original Articles DO - 10.3126/nmj.v2i1.23996 UR - https://www.nepjol.info/index.php/nmj/article/view/23996 SP - 141-144 AB - <p><strong>Introduction:</strong> High altitude has various effects on human beings. Altitude-related illnesses are a frequent cause of morbidity and occasional mortality in travelers to high altitudes throughout the&nbsp;world. Altitude has potential undesired ophthalmological effects too. Most of these problems are&nbsp;primarily preventable with an adequate level of information before and during travel. In this article,&nbsp;ophthalmological effects like altitude retinopathy and other ocular presentations of high altitude,&nbsp;likely to be encountered by mountaineers, are reviewed.<br><strong>Materials and methods:</strong> This is a hospital-based cross-sectional study from March 2016 to&nbsp;March 2017 done in Swacon International Hospital and Sleep Care Center, Kathmandu, Nepal.&nbsp;All the patients diagnosed as acute mountain sickness in the hospital during the study period were&nbsp;included. All the patients were evaluated by a physician and an ophthalmologist. All the findings&nbsp;were recorded in the proforma.<br><strong>Results:</strong> A total of 167 patients were admitted. Among them, 98 patients were diagnosed with&nbsp;acute mountain sickness; 20 patients had High altitude cerebral edema and 40 had High altitude&nbsp;pulmonary edema. Ocular findings, among patients who presented to our centre, were a high altitude&nbsp;retinopathy (28.48%) corneal abrasions (5.6%), snow blindness (8.86%), acetazolamide induced&nbsp;myopia (2.53%), conjunctivitis(8.22%), corneal ulcer (1.26%) and retinal detachment(0.63%).<br><strong>Conclusions:</strong> Mountaineers are at risk of developing high-altitude-related illnesses. Many other&nbsp;tissues in the eyes are also affected by high-altitude hypoxia, and effects can be observed on the&nbsp;conjunctiva, cornea, intraocular pressure, lens, uvea apart from the retina and the optic nerve.</p> ER -