Air Travel and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: A New Algorithm for Pre-flight Evaluation: Edvardsen A, Akero A, Christensen CC, et al. Thorax 2012;67:964–9.

Abstract

With chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) increasing in prevalence and air travel becoming progressively accessible, more and more elderly air passengers are at risk for developing severe hypoxemia and respiratory distress after cabin depressurization. To date, the gold-standard instrument used to predict the need for in-flight supplemental oxygen is the hypoxia-altitude simulation test (HAST). Unfortunately, HAST is time-intensive, invasive (it requires multiple arterial blood samples to determine PaO2), and not widely available.