Oxford Handbook of Expedition and Wilderness Medicine: Edition 2

Chris Johnson · Sarah R. Anderson · Jon Dallimore · Chris Imray · Shane Winser · James Moore · David Warrell

May 2015 · OUP Oxford

About this ebook

Revised for its second edition to include the latest national and international guidelines, the Oxford Handbook of Expedition and Wilderness Medicine continues to be the essential resource forexpedition medics and all well-informed travellers, including gap-year students. Clear and concise, readers can rely on this handbook to provide the knowledge and practical advice they need. It enables efficient preparation and planning before the journey, advises on camp logistics, risk management, and medical problems during the trip, as well as highlighting rare but important risks to those visiting remote areas. Focusing on preventative measures, the handbook also contains chapters dealing with crisis management, emergency care, and evacuation from challenging environments. Now containing more guidance about the obligations of a clinician joining an expedition, and the ethical approach to such work, the second edition of the Oxford Handbook of Expedition and Wilderness Medicine also provides an increased emphasis on medicine in various extreme environments. With revised and additional illustrations, more colour plates, and an increased use of important algorithms, this edition will give you the confidence and skills you need to travel to any extreme or remote environment. Updated with the support of the Royal Geographical Society, and incorporating the combined knowledge and experience of a team of experienced clinicians and expeditioners, this is a practical, easy-to-use guide to all aspects of expedition and wilderness medicine. Anyone who might ever step into the natural countryside, away from tarmac or gravelled paths, to seek the freedom and beauty of unspoiled nature needs to be aware of the content of this book, to enhance their enjoyment, and minimise the risk of pursuing adventurous travel.

About the author

Dr Chris Johnson overwintered in Antarctica and completed a research degree in environmental physiology at a time when both travel and communications were far more tenuous than nowadays. This stimulated a lifelong interest in both travel and medicine in remote areas, and his journeys include regular trips to Scandinavia, Iceland, Greenland and northern Canada, whilst his Caribbean-born wife demands visits to other, hotter, climes. Working as a consultant anaesthetist in Bristol he has specialised in head & neck anaesthesia, is a keen medical educator, and has been involved in the development of appraisal processes and their associated information systems Dr Sarah R. Anderson is a Consultant in Communicable Disease Control and works in London. She has a long affiliation with expeditioning; her expedition experience includes the outback of Australia, the arctic north of Norway, a variety of trips to African and the mountains of Nepal. While at University she led an expedition to Uganda and was President of the Cambridge University Explorers' and Travellers' Club. Sarah is a UK Summer Mountain Leader and medical adviser to the Royal Geographical Society's Medical Cell; she co-edited the first edition of the OHEWM, and was co-author of Expedition Health and Safety - a risk assessment (JRSM 2000; 93:557-562). In 2001 Sarah acted as the medical officer to the RGS - Shoals of Capricorn Programme. She has a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and has worked in hospitals in Uganda, Zimbabwe and South Africa, and as a flying doctor in Kenya with AMREF. Sarah has research interests in infectious disease epidemiology and expedition health and safety. Dr Jon Dallimore is a General Practitioner in South Wales and a specialty doctor in the Emergency Department of Bristol Royal Infirmary. Jon's expedition experience varies from the deserts of Namibia, Sinai and Northern Kenya to the jungles of Sulawesi, Belize, Thailand and Ecuador, and high altitude climbs and treks to Nepal, Greenland, Pakistan, Iceland, Morocco, East Africa and the Andes. Jon is an International Mountain Leader, a member of the Alpine Club and a member of faculty on the UK Diploma in Mountain Medicine. Jon is medical consultant to four British expedition companies and is regularly involved with training expedition team members and leaders on the medical aspects of travel to remote areas. Shane Winser is responsible for expeditions and fieldwork at the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG). She heads Geography Outdoors: the centre supporting field research, exploration and outdoor learning (formerly known as the Expedition Advisory Centre) which provides advice, information and training to some 1,500 plus scientific, educational, and adventurous expeditions each year. Shane has sat on a number of national committees concerned with benchmarking good practice including BSI's technical panel for BS 8848 the British Standard for orgnaising and managing visits, fieldwork, expeditions and adventurous activities outside the United Kingdom. Shane assisted in the planning and organisation of the RGS's own research programmes to the tropical forests of Sarawak and Brunei, the mountains of the Karakoram, and the drylands of western Australia, Kenya and Oman. Professor David Warrell's current post is International Director (Hans Sloane Fellow), Royal College of Physicians, and Emeritus Professor of Tropical Medicine and Honorary Fellow of St Cross College at the University of Oxford, UK. In 2006, he retired as Professor of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Diseases and Head of the Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine in Oxford. Chris Imray is a consultant vascular and renal transplant surgeon at UHCW NHS Trust, and is also a Professor at Warwick Medical School. He started climbing whilst at school and has continued to travel all over the world to fulfill this passion. He took part in the 2006 Xtreme Cho Oyu expedition to Tibet, as one of the medical officers and was the Deputy Climbing Leader of the 2007 Caudwell Xtreme Everest Expedition. He summited both Cho Oyu (8201m) and Everest (8848m) and has the dubious distinction of having the second lowest arterial gases ever recorded in an adult (N Engl J Med. 2009 Jan 8;360(2):140-9) He has the Diploma in Mountain Medicine and with Dr Paul Richards and Dr Dave Hillebrandt, he runs the UK internet based frostbite service (). His real job is as a vascular/renal transplant surgeon with a particular interest in the management of the high risk carotid patient. His PhD is on the hypoxic and ischaemic brain. James Moore is a travel nurse specialist and Director of Travel Health Consultancy, an independent travel clinic based in Exeter, UK. He consults for a number of companies, charities, schools and organisations on travel health related matters. His background as an Emergency Department charge nurse and Nurse Practitioner led him to the field of Expedition and Wilderness Medicine, where he also works as an expedition medic and leader for various schools, charities, television production teams and private companies. James has over 14 years experience in training in expedition medicine. He teaches on the Diploma in Mountain Medicine, the Diploma in Travel Medicine and for the Royal Geographical Society. In addition to mountain leadership qualifications, he has diplomas in Travel Medicine, Tropical Nursing and a degree in Emergency Care. He is the Honorary Secretary for the British Global and Travel Health Association and member of the Medical Cell for the Royal Geographical Society.