Looking For Climbers Who Have Been To High Altitude After Vision Correction Surgery

[malabar]

Exposure to high altitude after vision correction surgery poses a risk of developing a variety of issues ranging from dry eyes, light sensitivity, and nearsightedness, to rare, severe cases of near-blindness that was a contributing factor to loss of life. Despite these reports, little is known about exactly how common these symptoms are.

We are conducting a research survey to estimate how commonly vision changes occur while travelling to high altitude after vision correction surgery. People who have had vision correction surgery are eligible to participate, whether they experienced visual symptoms or not. If you are eligible and choose to participate, you will find a link to the anonymous on-line survey at the bottom of this email. The survey will take less than 20 minutes to complete and does not require you to provide any personal information.

Participation in this study is voluntary. You may decline to answer any question in the survey. All the information you provide in the survey will remain anonymous and no one will be able to identify you from the information you provide in the survey. Although you will not benefit directly from this survey, we anticipate that information learned from the survey will help guide medical practice for future climbers travelling to high altitude.

If you have any questions, feel free to email us at aluks@u.washington.edu, although please be reminded that the confidentiality of emails cannot be guaranteed. We appreciate your time and effort in completing this survey and look forward to reviewing the information you provide.

Click here to complete this survey: https://redcap.iths.org/surveys/?s=7L9NN7CHPH 

If the link does not work, you can copy and paste it in your web browser.

PLEASE REMEMBER TO CLICK ON "SUBMIT" AT THE END OF THE SURVEY TO ENSURE THAT YOUR ANSWERS ARE ALL SAVED PROPERLY.

Sincerely,

Andrew M Luks, MD
Professor, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine
University of Washington

Hans F Hurt, MD
Department of Emergency Medicine
University of New Mexico

Michael A LaBarbera, MD
Department of Medicine
University of Washington

Gabriel Willmann, MD
Professor, Department of Ophthalmology
University of Tübingen
 

[malabar]

bump

[Rad]

You might want to mention what "high altitude" means in the context of your study. In WA, there's only two peaks over 12,000, and only 4 over 10,000. Far more over 14k in CA and CO than in WA. Most of us don't think any peaks in the continental US would count as "high altitude" as they're all under 15k.

[Stefan]

Just an idea.  Contact the latin american airlines who fly into La Paz.  Maybe you can find someone?  Or maybe people who live in La Paz.  It might add to the sample of people for your survey.