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Mortality on Mount Everest, 1921-2006: descriptive study
Objective To examine patterns of mortality among climbers on Mount Everest over an 86 year period. Design Descriptive study. Setting Climbing expeditions to Mount Everest, 1921-2006. Participants 14 138 mountaineers; 8030 climbers and 6108 sherpas. Main outcome measure Circumstances of deaths. Resul...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.
2008
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2602730/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19074222 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.a2654 |
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author | Firth, Paul G Zheng, Hui Windsor, Jeremy S Sutherland, Andrew I Imray, Christopher H Moore, G W K Semple, John L Roach, Robert C Salisbury, Richard A |
author_facet | Firth, Paul G Zheng, Hui Windsor, Jeremy S Sutherland, Andrew I Imray, Christopher H Moore, G W K Semple, John L Roach, Robert C Salisbury, Richard A |
author_sort | Firth, Paul G |
collection | PubMed |
description | Objective To examine patterns of mortality among climbers on Mount Everest over an 86 year period. Design Descriptive study. Setting Climbing expeditions to Mount Everest, 1921-2006. Participants 14 138 mountaineers; 8030 climbers and 6108 sherpas. Main outcome measure Circumstances of deaths. Results The mortality rate among mountaineers above base camp was 1.3%. Deaths could be classified as involving trauma (objective hazards or falls, n=113), as non-traumatic (high altitude illness, hypothermia, or sudden death, n=52), or as a disappearance (body never found, n=27). During the spring climbing seasons from 1982 to 2006, 82.3% of deaths of climbers occurred during an attempt at reaching the summit. The death rate during all descents via standard routes was higher for climbers than for sherpas (2.7% (43/1585) v 0.4% (5/1231), P<0.001; all mountaineers 1.9%). Of 94 mountaineers who died after climbing above 8000 m, 53 (56%) died during descent from the summit, 16 (17%) after turning back, 9 (10%) during the ascent, 4 (5%) before leaving the final camp, and for 12 (13%) the stage of the summit bid was unknown. The median time to reach the summit via standard routes was earlier for survivors than for non-survivors (0900-0959 v 1300-1359, P<0.001). Profound fatigue (n=34), cognitive changes (n=21), and ataxia (n=12) were the commonest symptoms reported in non-survivors, whereas respiratory distress (n=5), headache (n=0), and nausea or vomiting (n=3) were rarely described. Conclusions Debilitating symptoms consistent with high altitude cerebral oedema commonly present during descent from the summit of Mount Everest. Profound fatigue and late times in reaching the summit are early features associated with subsequent death. |
format | Text |
id | pubmed-2602730 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2008 |
publisher | BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-26027302008-12-15 Mortality on Mount Everest, 1921-2006: descriptive study Firth, Paul G Zheng, Hui Windsor, Jeremy S Sutherland, Andrew I Imray, Christopher H Moore, G W K Semple, John L Roach, Robert C Salisbury, Richard A BMJ Research Objective To examine patterns of mortality among climbers on Mount Everest over an 86 year period. Design Descriptive study. Setting Climbing expeditions to Mount Everest, 1921-2006. Participants 14 138 mountaineers; 8030 climbers and 6108 sherpas. Main outcome measure Circumstances of deaths. Results The mortality rate among mountaineers above base camp was 1.3%. Deaths could be classified as involving trauma (objective hazards or falls, n=113), as non-traumatic (high altitude illness, hypothermia, or sudden death, n=52), or as a disappearance (body never found, n=27). During the spring climbing seasons from 1982 to 2006, 82.3% of deaths of climbers occurred during an attempt at reaching the summit. The death rate during all descents via standard routes was higher for climbers than for sherpas (2.7% (43/1585) v 0.4% (5/1231), P<0.001; all mountaineers 1.9%). Of 94 mountaineers who died after climbing above 8000 m, 53 (56%) died during descent from the summit, 16 (17%) after turning back, 9 (10%) during the ascent, 4 (5%) before leaving the final camp, and for 12 (13%) the stage of the summit bid was unknown. The median time to reach the summit via standard routes was earlier for survivors than for non-survivors (0900-0959 v 1300-1359, P<0.001). Profound fatigue (n=34), cognitive changes (n=21), and ataxia (n=12) were the commonest symptoms reported in non-survivors, whereas respiratory distress (n=5), headache (n=0), and nausea or vomiting (n=3) were rarely described. Conclusions Debilitating symptoms consistent with high altitude cerebral oedema commonly present during descent from the summit of Mount Everest. Profound fatigue and late times in reaching the summit are early features associated with subsequent death. BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. 2008-12-11 /pmc/articles/PMC2602730/ /pubmed/19074222 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.a2654 Text en © Firth et al 2008 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Firth, Paul G Zheng, Hui Windsor, Jeremy S Sutherland, Andrew I Imray, Christopher H Moore, G W K Semple, John L Roach, Robert C Salisbury, Richard A Mortality on Mount Everest, 1921-2006: descriptive study |
title | Mortality on Mount Everest, 1921-2006: descriptive study |
title_full | Mortality on Mount Everest, 1921-2006: descriptive study |
title_fullStr | Mortality on Mount Everest, 1921-2006: descriptive study |
title_full_unstemmed | Mortality on Mount Everest, 1921-2006: descriptive study |
title_short | Mortality on Mount Everest, 1921-2006: descriptive study |
title_sort | mortality on mount everest, 1921-2006: descriptive study |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2602730/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19074222 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.a2654 |
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