It’s one of the most sudden and shocking causes of cardiac arrest, a seemingly harmless blow to the chest, followed by collapse. No broken ribs. No massive trauma. Just a perfectly timed impact that sends the heart into chaos. Commotio cordis occurs when a blunt impact to the chest, strikes directly over the heart during a critical 20–30 millisecond window of the cardiac cycle. If that impact happens during ventricular repolarization (the upstroke of the T-wave), it can trigger ventricular fibri

You may not have heard of commotio cordis before today. In this video, Dr. Matthew Silvis, chief of the Division of Primary Care Sports Medicine at Penn State Health, talks about the causes as well as the importance of CPR and of using an automated external defibrillator (AED) to try to save a life when minutes count. | Penn State Health