Review of Considerations, Management, and Treatment of Medical Emergencies During Commercial Flight

As the overall health of our worlds population improves, life expectancy will increase, leading to an older population using air transport. With this aged population comes a variety of chronic medical conditions that may become exacerbated during commercial flight, increasing the probability of in-flight medical emergencies. Thus, primary care providers need a better understanding of the aviation environment to make reasonable decisions concerning medical clearance for flying. In this report, the medical resources onboard most civilian commercial airlines, the contents of the medical kits, and the training background of the crew in response to inflight medical events are reviewed. Ground-based medical support agencies are introduced, and the physiology of the respiratory system is outlined. General guidance for responding to medical events onboard, with decision strategy for determining aircraft diversion, is provided, along with a discussion of the top four most common in-flight medical events. Finally, a brief history of international standards is given to compare the procedures between the United States and the international communities.