ICAR 2024 Conference
Carol Starkey | August 5th 2025 | News
ICAR 2024 Update
ICAR took place in Thessaloniki from 16th to 20th October 2024. There were several commissions including avalanche, terrestrial, air rescue as well as medical.
From the medical commission there are several pieces of research being undertaken; an interesting one is to undertake a meta-analysis of the literature on splinting in mountain medicine, excluding c-spine management with a view to publishing evidence-based guidance on best practice in all non-c-spine splinting over the next few years. ICAR are looking for interested junior members to help with the data analysis. As all BASP members are ICAR members then we would be able to be involved and can contact ICAR if interested.
ICAR are awaiting further research to come out, mainly from American colleges etc next year who are reviewing the literature for c-spine management and awaiting a pending update before reviewing their guidance on c-spine management. However, the Wilderness Medical Society (WMS) has published updated guidelines on c-spine management this year and are looking to update the guidance on drowning and heat illness shortly. All of their guidance is updated every 5 years.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epub/10.1177/10806032241227232
Some interested research that was presented and will be published shortly from ICAR and ICAR teams are:
- Medical care at very high altitude
- Meta-analysis of predictors for acute mountain sickness
- Rescuer acute altitude sickness meta-analysis with recommendations on medication prophylaxis
- Helicopter rescue at high altitude including another paper on history of helicopter rescue at very high altitude
Additional papers that may be of interested that were noted are:
- Prevalence of airway patency and air pocket in critically buried avalanche victims – a scoping review – which shows that the prevalence of airway patency in critically buried avalanche victims was 41% while that of airway obstruction was 12%. An air pocket was present in 19% of cases, absent in 46%.
- Multiple trauma management in mountain environments – a scoping review – showing a crABCDE approach, with haemorrhage control first, is central, followed by basic first aid, splinting, immobilisation, analgesia, and insulation. Time for on-site medical treatment must be balanced against the need for rapid transfer to a trauma centre and should be as short as possible.
https://sjtrem.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13049-020-00790-1
New Zealand Land Search and Rescue team presented on support within rescue teams. They have a peer support programme with several designated volunteers, who have had some specific training, that team members can talk to, if required. If they have a challenging rescue the peer support are deployed also to aid in the debrief process. The M.A.N.E.R.S.® Model of Psychological First Aid was discussed and is a useful strategy we can use within our teams and to help others.
Finally, there was an interesting presentation on the ethics of rescue following a recently published paper “climbing high and letting die” which discusses the comparable risk principle and looks at the limits to the duty to rescue principle. This article stemmed from a situation where Everest climbers in the death zone passed a critically ill man and failed to rescue. Definitely worth a read on the ethics around whether all mountaineers have a duty to try to rescue someone in need.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00948705.2020.1869559
Hope this is of use to all and to see more BASP team members at ICAR next year!!
Dr Chloé Gelder (BASP Member/Trainer)