Emphysema sufferers vs. cabin altitude

[fernytickles]

Has any research been done, or is there any info on the effect of cabin pressure/altitude on emphysema sufferers? The reason I ask is I have a relative who is now, thanks to smoking, suffering from emphysema, and I was wondering how, or if, airline flying will affect her. I have been googling emphysema all morning to get general info, but thought pprune would be the best place to ask this question.

Also, altho' she's not at that stage yet, what are the rules of travelling with an oxygen bottle? On one of the forums, there was a lot of comments from folk in the USA about the restrictions caused by this, so I was wondering what the rules are for European travel.

Thank you.

[gingernut]

Have a look at this small scale study http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=7587432&query_hl=1&itool=pubmed_docsum as a starting point.

[Flyin'Dutch']

FT,

Via your friend's GP you should be able to get in touch with the local chest clinic in your general hospital.

Most will have or know of a place where they can do an Oxygen challenge/Flightfitness test to see whether your friend can travel by air and whether she needs supplemental oxygen.

What they do is monitor oxygen levels both during breathing normal air, air mimicking the lower O2 at the normal cabin pressure in airliners (equivalent of 8000ft) and if necessary air with supplemental Oxygen.

With those results in hand you can see whether everything is OK or whether supplemental Oxygen is needed.

If that is the case you will need to contact the airline(s) you want to fly with and ask if they can provide this. SOme will do this FOC but most will charge some money for it.

Hope this helps

FD

[FlightDetent]

If needed and you do contact the company for supplemental O2, be thorough. Your message from the sales agent takes a long way to reach the supporting personell yet longer the operating cabin crew. There is no point finding who screwed up when you need the bottle onboard. Challenge everyone, starting at the check-in desk. Every company has its procedures to help but do not hope them to work, express a little concern now and then and you both will be happy. It is not unusual at all, just don't let YOUR day be spoiled by the fact that by operational necessity (read probaility at 50 per cent) by the aircraft no-one knows.

Yours,
FD.
(the un-real)

[fernytickles]

Thank you for your comments and the link to the article.