Citation

Ströhle M, Putzer G, Procter E, Paal P. High Alt. Med. Biol. 2015; 16(4): 356-357.

Affiliation

Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Innsbruck Medical University , Innsbruck, Austria .

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Mary Ann Liebert Publishers)

DOI

10.1089/ham.2015.0007

PMID

26217979

Abstract

Avalanche victims can become hypothermic within 35 minutes of snow burial. However, reported cooling rates for avalanche victims are highly variable and it is poorly understood how much cooling is influenced by general factors (body composition, clothing, ambient conditions, duration of burial, and metabolism), unknown inter-individual factors or other phenomena (e.g., afterdrop). We report an apparent cooling rate of ∼7°C in ∼60 minutes in a healthy backcountry skier who was rewarmed with forced air and warm fluids and was discharged after 2 weeks without neurological sequelae.

Language: en