In Reply to Drs. Rousson,Hall,and Pasquier

To the Editor:

We would like to thank Drs. Rousson, Hall, and Pasquier ¹ for pointing out the error in our recently published clinical practice guidelines (CPG) on for prevention and management of avalanche and nonavalanche snow burial accidents. ²

In our paper, we said that when using the HOPE score ³ to predict survival with ECLS of buried avalanche victims in cardiac arrest, “Avalanche victims with possible asphyxia, should be scored with ‘asphyxia’ and ‘in cardiac arrest at extrication.’” We should have said, “Avalanche victims with possible asphyxia, should be scored ‘without asphyxia.’” We regret this error and any confusion it may have caused. A correction has been made to the online and PDF version of the article.

Unless there is definite asphyxia, avalanche victims in cardiac arrest should have the benefit of a potentially higher score.