Surprisingly, lacrosse is the fasting growing youth sport in the country.
MedPage Today reports a recent study from Pediatrics that showed that lacrosse players have a disproportionally higher rate of commotio cordis, which is ventricular fibrillation caused by blunt chest trauma.
43 percent of lacrosse deaths can be attributed to the condition, compared to 27 percent in hockey, and 24 percent in baseball.
What to do? Researchers are looking at better chest protection, but research in labs have shown that “chest barriers did not demonstrate a preventive effect against precordial blow-induced ventricular fibrillation.”
I think what may be more helpful is ready access to an automatic defibrillator at lacrosse events.
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{ 1 comment }
Perhaps a more ‘rational’ approach would be to ban the sport entirely. Certainly would save a lot of money, not to mention angst and suffering.
Chuck Brooks
FutureWare SCG
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