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Recent research at Tufts University offers hope that ready access to defibrillators can save the lives of children who suffer sudden cardiac arrest due to a seemingly innocent or accidental chest blow.
The rare but often fatal condition, known as commotio cordis, occurs when children are struck by a baseball, softball, lacrosse ball, or other object within a critical split second in the heart cycle, triggering ventricular fibrillation. Saving a victim of commotio cordis, or "heart concussion," requires defibrillation within minutes.
"It is important to realize that sudden cardiac arrest happens to children as well as older persons," Dr. Mark Link, leading expert on sudden death and assistant professor of medicine at Tufts University, reported at a North American Society of Pacing and Electrophysiology conference. "Typically, in commotio cordis, the SCA occurs during a sporting event, when a child sustains a chest wall blow and collapses. Onlookers often assume the child has simply had the wind knocked out of him or her. But this can be a catastrophic assumption because, in fact, the child may have experienced a potentially fatal event."
Dr. Link and his colleagues used a pig model of commotio cordis to investigate the effects of AEDs in recognizing and treating ventricular fibrillation. In the study, the AED recognized the life-threatening arrhythmia 98 percent of the time, and all episodes were successfully terminated by an AED shock.
"Our study demonstrates that AEDs can recognize and terminate fatal arrhythmias in young athletes and suggests the need for wider availability of AEDs in the community, potentially even in schools and on the playing fields where our young people are participating in sports," said Dr. Link in a release. "Furthermore, it should prompt adults who are engaged in supervising youth athletes to recognize the signs of SCA, learn CPR, and have an AED readily available."
An estimated 200 to 300 student athletes die each year from sudden cardiac death caused by commotio cordis and other heart problems. Experts add that defibrillators on school campuses could save lives of teachers, fans and visitors, as well as athletes.
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