Challenges of air transport for patients: strategies and recommendations

Air transport of patients is a challenge that requires healthcare professionals to have a broad knowledge of the conditions and environment inside an aircraft cabin, as well as the physiological changes that patients experience. These are situations the medical team must manage before dealing with this activity, and one of the greatest challenges is a patient with mechanical ventilation and sedation. This article is intended to provide anesthesiologists, transport physicians and other medical staff with a review of the physiologic changes of the body in flight, as well as to provide some recommendations for safe air transport of critically ill patients, based on the scientific literature.