• Pediatrics · Jan 2015

    Case Reports

    Atrial fibrillation induced by commotio cordis secondary to a blunt chest trauma in a teenage boy.

    • Kyle Ota and Andras Bratincsak.
    • John A. Burns School of Medicine, University of Hawai'i, Honolulu, Hawaii; and.
    • Pediatrics. 2015 Jan 1;135(1):e199-201.

    AbstractLow-energy blunt chest trauma can cause commotio cordis and ventricular fibrillation (VF) in otherwise healthy young individuals. If the chest wall impact occurs during a narrow vulnerable window of ventricular repolarization, the generated premature ventricular impulse can lead to VF and sudden death. Atrial fibrillation (AF) in association with a blunt chest trauma has not yet been reported in a child or adolescent. Our case describes a healthy 16-year-old boy who suffered blunt chest trauma during football practice. He was found to have AF, which resolved in 3 days without any therapy. He did not have any identifiable structural or electrical cardiac abnormality and had no previous history of arrhythmia. We hypothesize that AF, similar to commotio cordis-induced VF, may occur as a result of a blunt chest trauma in healthy young individuals. Animal studies evaluating arrhythmias related to chest wall impact may elucidate the timing and mechanism of AF induced by commotio cordis.Copyright © 2015 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

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