Background—Precordial blows in sports and daily activities can trigger ventricular fibrillation (VF) (commotio cordis). Whereas chest wall blows are common, commotio cordis is rare. Although factors such as timing, location, orientation, and energy of impact are critically important, we also hypothesize that there is individual susceptibility to commotio cordis. Using our model of commotio cord...

The expression “contusio cordis” defines a lesion of the cardiac myocyte, hemorrhagic or fibrotic, due to the application of violent kinetic force resulting from a blunt trauma to the precordial region1. Syncope is almost always the first clinical manifestation observed, and commonly precedes death. Contusio cordis differs from commotio cordis, the latter representing a cardiac electromechanica...

Despite the use of protective gear, a 15-year-old hockey player died when he was struck in the chest by a puck. This is the fifth recorded hockey death related to so-called commotio cordis, that is, blunt chest injury without myocardial structural damage. In light of inadequacies of commercial chest protectors currently in use for hockey, the authors hope to educate players and coaches about th...

We present a case of a previously healthy 17 year-old white male boy scout who collapsed after a lightning strike, and was found to be in ventricular fibrillation when emergency medical services arrived. The ventricular fibrillation was defibrillated into sinus rhythm after a single direct current (DC) countershock. However, the patient has remained in coma. Commotio cordis, sudden cardiac deat...

OBJECTIVES In an animal model of commotio cordis, sudden death with chest-wall impact, we sought to systematically evaluate the importance of impact velocity in the generation of ventricular fibrillation (VF) with baseball chest-wall impact. BACKGROUND Sudden cardiac death can occur with chest-wall blows in recreational and competitive sports (commotio cordis). Analyses of clinical events sug...

We describe a case of commotio cordis in which the patient had an extensive cardiac evaluation, including ECGs, a coronary angiogram, a left ventriculogram, repeated echocardiography and cardiovascular MRI (CMRI). A healthy 17-year-old boy sustained an open-handed blow to the anterior part of the chest from a friend with whom he was playing. On admission ECG was performed that showed ST-T alter...