Children to take part in Smiths Medical study on Mount Everest

NINE healthy British children, aged 6 to 13, are to travel to Mount Everest to take part in a ground-breaking medical study that aims to develop new treatments for critically ill children and those with both breathing and sleep problems.

The Smiths Medical Young Everest Study (SMYES) will investigate how the children cope with low oxygen levels on the world’s highest mountain.

Doctors do not yet fully understand children’s responses to low oxygen levels, which are common in very sick children and can be fatal.

By investigating how healthy children’s bodies cope and adapt at altitude, the SMYES team hopes to improve the chances of survival for very sick children. It also aims to improve the quality of life of those with chronic/long term lung diseases and to develop new methods of detecting and treating children with disturbed sleep patterns.

The study is being conducted by doctors and scientists from Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) and University College London’s Institute of Child Health (ICH). It is supported by Smiths Medical, which is a specialist in respiratory care and part of the global technology business Smiths Group.

The Smiths Medical Young Everest Study is being carried out in collaboration with Caudwell Xtreme Everest (CXE), the largest medical research project conducted at altitude. CXE, which is being conducted by UCL, will investigate how adults acclimatise to low oxygen levels. It is supported by John Caudwell, the entrepreneur and founder of The Caudwell Charity.

Professor Janet Stocks, Professor of Respiratory Physiology at UCL, who is leading SMYES, said: “The information gathered by the Smiths Medical Young Everest Study will provide important information about how children’s bodies cope and adapt in conditions of low oxygen.

“We hope that the results can be used to help the many children we treat at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children who suffer from a shortage of oxygen due to a variety of lung problems and sleep disorders.

“We also hope that the methods and equipment that we have adapted for use during this trek can be used afterwards to monitor children with sleep or breathing problems in their own homes. This would reduce the number of hospital visits and overnight stays for these children and their families.”

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