Doctors recover from biopsy operations after scaling Everest

A group of Irish doctors are recovering from muscle biopsy operations at Everest base camp in Nepal today less than a week after they stood on the summit of the world's highest mountain.

Queen's University Belfast (QUB) graduates Dr Roger McMorrow (31), Dr Nigel Hart (40) and Dr Michael O'Dwyer (31), originally from Clonmel, Co Tipperary, face another week of medical tests as members of an international team studying the effects of low oxygen or hypoxia on human physiology.

The research will be used to improve the care of critically ill patients and people with conditions such as emphysema and cystic fibrosis who are dependent on supplementary oxygen - "climbing their own Everest every day", as Dr Roger McMorrow puts it.

The three made the 8,850-metre summit on consecutive days late last week, having participated in a rescue en route to save the life of a Nepalese climber who lost consciousness just below 8,000 metres. The doctors undertook rigorous tests and kept daily medical diaries during their ascent, drawing arterial blood samples at 8,400 metres and using exercise bicycles on the 8,000-metre South Col - where they had set up the world's highest laboratory.

The muscle biopsies which they volunteered for yesterday followed similar procedures on their upper legs at sea level. "We are looking for changes which may occur, right down to cellular and DNA level, as a result of exposure to long-term hypoxia," Dr Hart, a GP, told The Irish Timesby satellite phone from base camp, before having the biopsies.

"The biopsies will be performed on a group of us, including 10 people who made the summit as part of our group and four who spent time on the South Col, sharing the same ascent profile," Dr Hart said.

"No, we aren't exactly looking forward to it! It involves a local anaesthetic and I guess we will be limping a bit for a day or two. At this altitude at base camp, one's healing powers are not so good."

Dr Hart's colleague, Dr Roger McMorrow, has designed a new closed-circuit breathing system to assist children with cystic fibrosis and people with chronic lung disease or other illnesses requiring supplementary oxygen use. Dr McMorrow, an anaesthetist based in Dublin, tried this out at base camp (5,300 metres) and at camp 2 (6,400 metres), and "ran on it on the South Col".

"We tested it two years ago on Cho Oyu [8,201 metres], and the carbon dioxide absorber didn't work well in the cold, but this has now been overcome," Dr McMorrow said. "It also maintains the same percentage of oxygen flow, even when exercising, which is critical."

He has already established links with a company which intends to refine the light-weight design for commercial use.

The three doctors were among seven anaesthetists, one vascular surgeon and two general practitioners (GP) on the Caudwell Xtreme Everest expedition led by British doctor Mike Grocott. Some 200 trekkers assisted the doctors with their research during their walks into base camp - transforming the expedition into the "world's largest human biology experiment at altitude", in the words of Dr Grocott.

"Although it is possible to simulate low oxygen levels in specially designed, low-pressure chambers, studies are very expensive and can produce variable results," Dr Grocott said. "Also the experience for the subjects involved can be unpleasant."

The £2 million sterling project has been co-ordinated by the UCL Centre for Altitude, Space and Extreme Environment Medicine (Case Medicine) at University College, London, and its 57 direct participants included support led by Pema Tharki Sherpa and Mingma Tseri Sherpa.

The main sponsor is a British entrepreneur, John Caudwell, and it has been endorsed by Dawson Stelfox, Belfast architect and first Irishman to climb Mount Everest, and by Michael Power, president of the Intensive Care Society of Ireland.