Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Strain Energy Absorption Corresponds To Decreased Incidence Of Ventricular Fibrillation In A Commotio Cordis Model, Kayt E. Frisch, Mark S. Link, John Van Weelden

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A healthy teenage boy is playing high school baseball, when he is struck in the chest by the ball; minutes later, his heart is experiencing ventricular fibrillation (VF) and the only way to resuscitate him is to use a defibrillator. This phenomenon, is known as Commotio Cordis (CC), and occurs as many as 20 times each year in the United States. CC most frequently occurs in sports with small balls (e.g. baseball or lacrosse) and requires a specific set of circumstances–a projectile with a certain amount of energy that impacts directly over the left ventricle of the heart during a …