Low blood oxygen on Everest offers treatment hope
By Michael Kahn
LONDON (Reuters) - A team of British doctors conducting experiments in the “Death Zone” of Mount Everest has recorded the lowest levels of blood oxygen in humans, far below those of critically ill patients.
The findings published on Wednesday could one day lead to better care for patients with heart and lung ailments in intensive care units, premature babies and others suffering from similar low-oxygen levels, known as hypoxia.
“We want to understand why humans respond differently to low oxygen levels,” Mike Grocott, a researcher at University College London, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.
“The problem with studying critically ill patients is there are so many other things going on it makes it difficult to single out the effects of any one variable.”
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