What Causes Sudden Loss Of Consciousness While Travelling By Flight?

Posted on Sat, 18 Jul 2015

Medically reviewed by Ask A Doctor - 24x7 Medical Review Team

Sat, 18 Jul 2015 Answered on

Fri, 7 Aug 2015 Last reviewed on

Question : My son is currently 29 years old and had a medical emergency yesterday while on a flight from San Francisco to XXXXXXX Approximately 40 minutes into the flight, while seated, he said he didn't feel well, put his head between his legs and passed out. Two doctors on board attended to him. As a 12 year old he had a number of fainting episodes and was seen by a physician at Children's Hospital in XXXXXXX He described the diagnosis which I can't recall. He was given a prescription for Florinef 0.1 mg q day. I believe he took this medication for at least 6 months. I am also concerned about his blood sugar, however, he ate a good breakfast before the flight. He exercises a lot lately and has a Fitbit. He is not overweight and is otherwise healthy. I am an RN and have advised him to call his doctor at Kaiser first thing Monday. He recently had a full physical, but did not have bloodwork done. He will get that done this coming week. Any suggestions? Thank you, XXXXXXX XXXX I will try to obtain his medical records from Children's.

Answered by Dr. Prof. Kunal Saha (41 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
I have explained the physiology in detail.

Detailed Answer:
Thanks for asking on HealthcareMagic.
I have carefully gone through the details. It seems that your son had a syncope which could have been caused due to inadequate blood supply to the brain. Under normal situations, our calf muscles pump the blood back to the heart from where it is pumped to the brain and other regions of the body. When sitting for prolonged duration as in case of the flight, the calf muscles do not need to contract and hence peripheral pooling of blood may occur leading to inadequate blood in circulation and hence less blood might have been reaching the brain. The brain does not have oxygen or glucose reserves and hence inadequate blood supply would lead to passing out. The peripheral pooling of blood and syncope could also be linked to a condition called sick sinus syndrome (SSS). In such a case no bloodwork will show anything abnormal. A tilt table test will be conclusive. If the result comes positive, the treatment of choice is tilt training or orthostatic training.
Hope that helps.
Regards

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar