Wilderness Medical Society Practice Guidelines for Prevention and Management of Avalanche and Nonavalanche Snow Burial Accidents

Christopher Van Tilburg; Colin K Grissom; Ken Zafren; Scott McIntosh; Martin I Radwin; Peter Paal; Pascal Haegeli; William Will R Smith; Albert R Wheeler; David Weber; Bruce Tremper; Hermann Brugger

doi:10.1016/j.wem.2016.10.004

Wilderness Medical Society Practice Guidelines for Prevention and Management of Avalanche and Nonavalanche Snow Burial Accidents

Wilderness Environ Med. 2017 Mar;28(1):23-42. doi: 10.1016/j.wem.2016.10.004.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Occupational, Travel, and Emergency Medicine Departments, Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital, Hood River, OR (Dr Van Tilburg); Mountain Rescue Association, San Diego, CA (Drs Van Tilburg, Zafren, Smith, and Wheeler). Electronic address: [email protected].
² Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Intermountain Medical Center and the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (Dr Grissom).
³ Mountain Rescue Association, San Diego, CA (Drs Van Tilburg, Zafren, Smith, and Wheeler); Department of Emergency Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA (Dr Zafren); International Commission for Mountain Emergency Medicine (Drs Brugger, Paal, and Zafren).
⁴ Division of Emergency Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (Drs McIntosh and Wheeler).
⁵ Iasis Healthcare Physician Group of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (Dr Radwin).
⁶ International Commission for Mountain Emergency Medicine (Drs Brugger, Paal, and Zafren); Barts Heart Centre, St Bartholomew's Hospital, Barts Health NHS Trust, Queen Mary University of London, London, United Kingdom (Dr Paal); Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, University Hospital, Innsbruck, Austria (Dr Paal).
⁷ School of Resource and Environmental Management, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC (Dr Haegeli).
⁸ Mountain Rescue Association, San Diego, CA (Drs Van Tilburg, Zafren, Smith, and Wheeler); Department of Emergency Medicine, St. Johns Medical Center, Jackson, WY (Drs Smith and Wheeler); Clinical WWAMI Faculty, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA (Dr Smith).
⁹ Mountain Rescue Association, San Diego, CA (Drs Van Tilburg, Zafren, Smith, and Wheeler); Division of Emergency Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (Drs McIntosh and Wheeler); Department of Emergency Medicine, St. Johns Medical Center, Jackson, WY (Drs Smith and Wheeler).
¹⁰ Denali National Park & Preserve, Talkeetna, AK (Mr Weber); Intermountain Life Flight, Salt Lake City, UT (Mr Weber).
¹¹ Utah Avalanche Center, Salt Lake City, UT (Mr Tremper).
¹² International Commission for Mountain Emergency Medicine (Drs Brugger, Paal, and Zafren); EURAC Institute of Mountain Emergency Medicine, Bolzano, Italy (Dr Brugger).

PMID: 28257714
DOI: 10.1016/j.wem.2016.10.004

Abstract

To provide guidance to clinicians and avalanche professionals about best practices, the Wilderness Medical Society convened an expert panel to develop evidence-based guidelines for the prevention, rescue, and medical management of avalanche and nonavalanche snow burial victims. Recommendations are graded on the basis of quality of supporting evidence according to the classification scheme of the American College of Chest Physicians.

Keywords: air pocket; airbags; avalanche; hypothermia; rescue; resuscitation; snow burial; wilderness medicine.

Publication types

Practice Guideline

MeSH terms

Accident Prevention* / methods
Accidents / mortality
Asphyxia / epidemiology
Avalanches*
Humans
Hypothermia / mortality
Hypothermia / physiopathology
Snow
Societies, Medical
Wilderness Medicine* / standards