New recommendations for the treatment of avalanche victims

Updated recommendations for the management of avalanche victims published in ‘Resuscitation’ journal As members of the International Commission for Alpine Rescue (ICAR MedCom), Eurac Research experts Giacomo Strapazzon and Hermann Brugger recently contributed to the development of updated recommendations for the management of avalanche victims. As part of a diverse research group, they conducted a review of avalanche-specific knowledge and collected avalanche victims medical results. At the same time, a list of Population, Intervention, Comparator and Outcomes (PICO) questions to focus on the most important questions pertaining to the management of avalanche victims was also created. The analysis showed that the main cause of death from avalanche burial was asphyxia. Trauma was the second most common cause, followed by hypothermia which only accounted for few deaths. Taking these numbers as a starting point, the guidelines define the recommended rescue approach for victims with different burial times and in different physical conditions. The International Commission for Alpine Rescue (ICAR MedCom) established guidelines, including an algorithm, for the prehospital management of persons buried in avalanches for the first time in 1996. The guidelines were updated in 2002, in 2013, and in 2023 and are the basis for the work of rescuers all over the world. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resuscitation.2023.109708