<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><sec id="j_asam-2019-002_s_001"><h3>Aim</h3><p>NASA and private spacefaring companies plan to send exploration missions to mars within the next two decades. The environment of space, duration of the mission, distance from earth, and limited available resources present significant challenges for the provision of health care. It has been estimated that at least one medical emergency is likely to occur during such a mission, which may necessitate surgical treatment, and therefore anaesthesia. The provision of safe anaesthesia faces challenges arising from physiological adaptations to space, difficulty achieving and maintaining personnel expertise, possible pharmacological changes in anaesthetic agents used, limited consumable shelf-life and provision of intravenous fluids and blood products. In this review article we discuss these challenges in the context of a hypothetical case.</p></sec></abstract>

AimNASA and private spacefaring companies plan to send exploration missions to mars within the next two decades. The environment of space, duration of the mission, distance from earth, and limited available resources present significant challenges for the provision of health care. It has been estimated that at least one medical emergency is likely to occur during such a mission, which may necessitate surgical treatment, and therefore anaesthesia. The provision of safe anaesthesia faces challenges arising from physiological adaptations to space, difficulty achieving and maintaining personnel expertise, possible pharmacological changes in anaesthetic agents used, limited consumable shelf-life and provision of intravenous fluids and blood products. In this review article we discuss these challenges in the context of a hypothetical case.

CHALLENGES IN ANAESTHESIA DURING SPACE EXPLORATION MISSIONS

Journal of the Australasian Society of Aerospace Medicine

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"CHALLENGES IN ANAESTHESIA DURING SPACE EXPLORATION MISSIONS"}

AimNASA and private spacefaring companies plan to send exploration missions to mars within the next two decades. The environment of space, duration of the...

CHALLENGES IN ANAESTHESIA DURING SPACE EXPLORATION MISSIONS

Article Category: review-article

Published Online: Jan 30, 2020

Page range: 1 - 10

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21307/asam-2019-002

© 2020 Stuart Benson., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.