Article Impact Level: HIGH Data Quality: STRONG Summary of Canadian Journal of Cardiology, 41(3), 522–530. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjca.2024.11.017 Mika’il Visanji et al.
Points
- This study analyzed 339 cases of sports-related sudden cardiac arrest in five Canadian provinces between 2016 and 2020, finding an overall incidence of 1.2 per 100,000 person-years, mostly in middle-aged men.
- Recreational sports facilities were the most frequent location for these events, accounting for over 60 percent of cases across 52 different sports. This indicates that organized yet casual environments may carry higher risks.
- Most Sr-SCA events were witnessed, with 75.6 percent receiving bystander CPR and 36.1 percent involving AED use, contributing to a notable median EMS response time of just over six minutes.
- Survival to hospital discharge was 52 percent among cases with known outcomes, with better survival linked to settings where bystander help and AEDs were more readily available at the time of collapse.
- The study underscores the critical role of immediate intervention and highlights the need for improved AED accessibility and CPR awareness in sports environments to help prevent fatalities from Sr-SCA.
Summary
This retrospective cohort study aimed to describe the epidemiology of sports-related sudden cardiac arrest (Sr-SCA) in five Canadian provinces with a population of 10.9 million. 18,769 out-of-hospital SCAs occurred between 2016 and 2020, with 339 (1.8%) cases deemed sports-related. The mean age of the affected individuals was 58.1 ± 14.3 years, and most cases were male (93.8%). The incidence of Sr-SCA was 1.2 per 100,000 person-years (95% CI, 1.1–1.4), with men having an almost 16-fold higher incidence than women (2.3 vs. 0.2 per 100,000 person-years). The study covered 52 unique sports, with recreational facilities being the most common setting (60.2% of cases).
High rates of bystander intervention were observed, with 75.6% of cases being witnessed and 73.6% receiving bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) were used in 36.1% of cases, and the median emergency medical services (EMS) response time was 6.2 minutes (IQR 4.8-8.9). Among those with a known final status, 52.0% survived hospital discharge, with survival rates varying based on the type of sport. Notably, survival rates were higher when the Sr-SCA occurred in sports facilities, where earlier bystander intervention and access to AEDs were more common.
In conclusion, while Sr-SCA remains rare, it is more common in middle-aged male recreational athletes. The study highlights the importance of bystander intervention, including CPR and AED use, as significant factors in improving survival. These findings emphasize the potential for improving outcomes through early intervention and better access to life-saving resources in recreational sports settings.
Link to the article: https://onlinecjc.ca/article/S0828-282X(24)01145-0/fulltext
References Visanji, M., Allan, K. S., Charette, M., Grunau, B., Roy, C., Goldstein, J., Choisi, T., De Montigny, L., Lin, S., Brissaw, J., Cameron-Dermann, L., Donoghue, M., Haines, M., Hutton, J., Nowroozpoor, A., Olszynski, P., Quinn, R., Vaillancourt, C., Carter, A., … Dorian, P. (2025). Sports-related sudden cardiac arrest in canada: Incidence and survival. Canadian Journal of Cardiology, 41(3), 522–530. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjca.2024.11.017
