Page 142 - Physical activity in recipients of solid organ transplantation - Edwin J. van Adrichem

Chapter 7
Success rate
Eleven of the 12 transplant participants and all of the controls climbed above 5000 meters.
One transplant participant returned at an early stage (day 4) due to the harsh
circumstances. On the day of the summit attempt, one transplant participant could not
maintain the required pace and one transplant participant needed to return prematurely
due to not being fully recovered from a gastroenteritis two days before. Whether the last
returning transplant participant had experienced acute mountain sickness, hypothermia, or
both could not be determined with certainty.

e three participants that had to return
during the summit attempt all had a good to excellent exercise capacity at baseline.
e
remaining eight transplant participants reached Uhuru peak at 5895 meters. Out of the
control group, all but one reached the summit. One member of the medical team
accompanied the returning transplant participants. All participants reaching the summit
are pictured in Fig 2.
Figure 2.
Transplant recipients and medical team at the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. Consent to
publication was obtained from all participants.
Discussion

e results from this study indicate that OTR that are physically

t and well prepared are
equally capable of making a summit attempt on Mount Kilimanjaro compared to non-
transplanted controls. First, saturation, heart frequency, and blood pressure did not di
not occur, and scores on the LLAMS questionnaire did not di
altitude in transplant participants appeared to be no di

er between transplant

er
between transplant participants and controls. Second, even though every participant
experienced some symptoms of acute mountain sickness, established mountain sickness did

participants and controls. Finally, the tolerance to strenuous physical activity at high
erent than that of comparable
140.