Galway University Hospital and Our Lady's Children's Hospital Crumlin medics said the incident is the first reported case of
Commotio Cordis caused by a sliotar.
The most important example of sudden noncardiac death in young athletes, without a history of structural disease, is
commotio cordis. This may be caused by a strong knock in the precordial region that causes the spontaneous appearance of ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia.
Ventricular fibrillation induced by stretch pulse: implications for sudden death due to
commotio cordis. J Cardiovasc Electrophysiol 2006; 17: 1011-7.
Published in cooperation with the American College of Sports Medicine, this textbook contains 18 chapters on the etiology, prevention, recognition, treatment, and return-to-play guidelines for 12 of the top causes of sudden death in sports, including heart disease, congenital cardiac conditions,
commotio cordis, exertional heat stroke and hyponatremia, head injuries, asthma, exertional sickling, and environmental, immune-related, and autoimmune conditions.
Sudden cardiac death due to the induction of ventricular fibrillation (VF) by blunt chest wall blows is defined as
commotio cordis. Most commonly occurring in the setting of sport,
commotio cordis has been reported with increasing frequency [1, 2].
For example, in the
commotio cordis query set (Table 3, online only), the occurrence of
commotio cordis was reported in four articles related to violence, each of which employed different title terms (violence, less-lethal weapon, soldier, military).
Commotio cordis is defined as a cardiac concussion with significant electrical disturbance when force is applied to the thorax during a vulnerable phase of ventricular repolarization.
Rarer is the occurrence of
Commotio Cordis, in which a young player receives a direct hit from a ball to the anterior chest wall, causing cardiac arrest.
Commotio cordis is blunt trauma over the anterior chest wall that can induce VF.
Global epidemiology and demographics of
commotio cordis. Heart Rhythm 2011;8(12):1969-1971.
It may be that Israeli athletes die from causes such as Marfan's Syndrome, anomalous coronary arteries, catecholamine related arrhythmias, or
commotio cordis, which would not be detected by a resting ECG.
Michael died of
commotio cordis - he went into cardiac arrest after being hit hard in the chest after a catch.
