14th International Congress
THE "NEW FRONTIERS"
OF ARRHYTHMIAS 2000

Jan. 29 - Feb. 5, 2000
Marilleva, Trento, Italy

RT-69

Commotio cordis: sudden death due to chest wall trauma

MarkS. Link, Paul J.Wang, Munther K. Homoud, Mark Estes III.
The New England Cardiac Arrhythmia Center, Tufts University School of Medicine, New England Medical Center, Washington, USA

Abstract

Commotio cordis is an uncommon condition in which sudden death results from nonpenetrating chest wall trauma in the absence of structural injury to the chest wall or myocardium. Clinical observations on this syndrome indicate that male athletes aged 5 to 18 years represent a high risk group for this tragic cause of death during athletic activities. Despite resuscitative efforts, death is usually instantaneous. Insights from a biological model of commotio cordis recently developed indicate that the mechanism of commotio cordis is ventricular fibrillation from the low energy chest wall impact during the vulnerable period of repolarization near the peak of the T wave.

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