Heart 1999;81:109-110 ( February )
Editorial
Commotio cordis: sudden death due to chest wall impact in sports
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Sudden
death resulting from relatively minor chest wall blows (commotio
cordis) has been described in the medical literature since the late
1970s.1 Since this phenomenon was first described, 70 cases
have been collected (Barry J Maron, personal communication, 1998). This
number is, in all likelihood, an underestimate of the true incidence of
this phenomenon as many cases go unreported or are reported as
accidental deaths or idiopathic sudden death. Indeed, a case of
ventricular fibrillation during a soccer match, although initially
reported as idiopathic, was on careful review of the events, discovered
to occur after an elbow blow to the anterior left chest2
(Gianfranco Buja, personal communication, 1998). Commotio cordis occurs
most frequently in baseball, but sudden death owing to chest impact has
also been reported in hockey, lacrosse, softball, and after bodily
impacts in other sports.1-6 There are no known cases in
cricket, but given that the ball is quite
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This article has been cited by other articles:
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SADLER, D W
(1999). Commotio cordis: sudden death due to chest wall impact in sports. Heart
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CAVALLI, A
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KOHL, P
(1999). Commotio cordis: early observations. Heart
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[Full Text]
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