Case Report Central Hypoventilation: A Case Study of Issues Associated with Travel Medicine and Respiratory Infection

Copyright © 2015 Kam Lun Hon et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Aim. We presented the case of a child with central hypoventilation syndrome (CHS) to highlight issues that need to be considered in planning long-haul flight and problems that may arise during the flight. Case. The pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) received a child with central hypoventilation syndrome (Ondine’s curse) on nocturnal ventilatory support who travelled to Hong Kong on a make-a-wish journey. He was diagnosed with central hypoventilation and had been well managed in Canada. During a long-haul aviation travel, he developed respiratory symptoms anddesaturations.The child arrived inHongKong andhis respiratory symptoms persisted. He was taken to a PICU for management. The child remained well and investigations revealed no pathogen to account for his respiratory infection. He went on with his make-a-wish journey. Conclusions. Various issues of travel medicine such as equipment, airline arrangement, in-flight ventilatory support, travel insurance, and respiratory infection are explored anddiscussed. This case illustrates that long-haul air travel is possible for childrenwith respiratory compromise if anticipatory preparation is timely arranged. 1