Handbook of Aviation and Space Medicine

This highly practical guide is ideal for any medical professional who deals with patients in the aerospace environment or is involved in the healthcare of aircrew or individuals preparing for or returning from aerospace travel. The book covers all the main aspects of aerospace medicine, in note form for rapid assimilation in the clinical setting, including the salient physiology and clinical aspects of aerospace medicine and makes plentiful use of figures, algorithms and tables, complemented throughout by clinical cases.

Table of Contents

Fixed wing aircraft. Rotary-wing operations. Maritime aviation. Parachuting. Remotely piloted aircraft systems. Space flight. Pressure change. Sub-atmospheric decompression illness. Acute hypoxia and hyperventilation. Prevention of hypoxia. The pressure cabin and oxygen systems. Loss of cabin pressure and rapid decompression. High altitude protection. Cosmic radiation. Acceleration physiology. Prevention of G-LOC. Short-duration acceleration. Restraint systems and escape from aircraft. Human physiology and the thermal environment. Aircrew equipment- general. Aircrew equipment- head injury and protection. Aircrew equipment- thermal protection and survival. Noise, hearing and vibration. Hearing protection and communication. Vision. Visual systems. Spatial orientation and disorientation in flight. Motion sickness. Human systems integration (HSI). Selection and training. The flight deck and cockpit. Human factors and crew resource management. Fatigue and countermeasures. Errors and accidents. Accident investigation. Assessing risk and making decisions. Medication in aircrew. International regulation of medical standards. Aircrew medicals. Anthropometry. The health of the cabin crew. Air traffic control. Passenger fitness to fly. Travel health and infectious diseases. Aviation public health. Planning for aeromedical evacuation. Clinical considerations in prolonged aeromedical transfer. Hypertension. Atherosclerosis. Congenital heart disease. Valvular Heart Disease. Heart Muscle Disease. Arrhythmias and electrophysiology. Cardiac investigations. Respiratory disease. Gastroenterology. Metabolic and endocrine disorders. Malignant disease. Renal disease and aviation. Neurological disease. Ear, nose and throat. Orthopaedics. Haematology. Aviation psychiatry

Nicholas Green is Whittingham Professor in Aviation Medicine, RAF CAM, RAF Centre of Aviation Medicine, RAF Henlow, Bedfordshire, UK

Steven Gaydos is a US Army Senior Aviator and Master Flight Surgeon board-certified in Aerospace, Occupational and Emergency Medicine currently serving as Director of Graduate Medical Education at the US Army School of Aviation Medicine, Fort Rucker, Alabama

Ewan Hutchison is Consultant in Aviation and Occupational Medicine and Head of Medical Assessment at the Civil Aviation Authority, Gatwick Airport, West Sussex, UK

Edward Nicol is Consultant Cardiologist, Chair of the NATO Aviation Cardiology Group and the RAF Consultant Advisor in Medicine, Aviation Medicine Clinical Service, RAF Centre of Aviation Medicine, RAF Henlow, Bedfordshire, UK