Oxygen Saturation in Relation to Flying Altitude. A Scoping Review Protocol

TL;DR

This study will review how flying at high altitudes affects oxygen levels in passengers, especially those with health conditions.

Contribution

The novel contribution is a systematic exploration of hypoxic symptoms and oxygen saturation changes during air travel through a scoping review.

Findings

The review will assess the relationship between aircraft altitude and passenger oxygen saturation.

It will report the frequency of hypoxic symptoms documented in existing studies.

Findings will guide understanding of how cabin pressure affects individuals with medical conditions.

Abstract

During air travel, the decrease in air pressure leads to a decrease in oxygen partial pressure causing oxygen desaturation. Every year, several commercial aircraft need to divert and perform unscheduled landings due to hypoxic symptoms or medical emergencies. How individuals are affected depends on their physical and medical conditions, as well as the cabin pressure of the aircraft. The phenomenon is of particular concern for individuals with pre‐existing medical conditions, as it may lead to hypoxic symptoms and necessitate unscheduled landings in some cases. The investigators aim to investigate the existing literature to explore how the impact of reduced oxygen partial pressure affects the oxygen saturation as a result of a decrease in cabin pressure due to aircraft altitude, and to assess the frequency of hypoxic symptoms reported during air travel. The purpose of the scoping review is to investigate the relationship between altitude, cabin pressure, and patient oxygenation during air travel. Further, the investigators will report the frequency of the reporting of hypoxic symptoms in the studies conducted.

This scoping review will be conducted in accordance with the Cochrane Handbook and Joanna Briggs Institute Manual for Scoping Reviews. The review question will be formulated using the Population, Intervention, Comparator, Outcome, Study Design, Timeframe (PICOST) framework. Every study design is eligible, apart from reviews, meta‐analyses, comments/letters without original data, case reports with less than five cases, animal studies, and in vitro studies. The investigators will include all articles in English or Scandinavian. The investigators will base their conclusions on the findings of the review.

According to Danish law, scoping reviews are exempt from ethics committee approval. The investigators will publish results from the scoping review in a peer‐reviewed journal and present the results at scientific conferences.