Congestive cardiac failure (and fitness to fly)
Condition | Lay explanation | Restriction/guidance |
Acute heart failure | You have been in hospital or treated at home because of 'water in the lungs' which made you very breathless | Fly after 6 weeks if stabilised (see chronic heart failure) |
Condition | Functional status | Lay explanation | Restriction/guidance |
Chronic heart failure | NYHA I&II | You get breathless on mild to moderate exercise but no recent (within 6 weeks) change of symptoms or medication | No restriction |
NYHA III | You get breathless on walking 20-100 yards/metres at your own pace but no recent (within 6 weeks) change of symptoms or medication | May require in flight oxygen | |
NYHA IV | You are breathless at rest and mainly bedbound | Advised not to fly without in flight oxygen and medical assistanc |
Note that these are only guidelines and each airline has its own regulations and medical standards.
Reference:
- British Heart Foundation (September 2010). Factfile - Fitness to fly for passengers with cardiovascular disease.
Related pages
Create an account to add page annotations
Annotations allow you to add information to this page that would be handy to have on hand during a consultation. E.g. a website or number. This information will always show when you visit this page.