Sudden cardiac death in young competitive athletes.

The sudden cardiac death (SCD) of a young athlete is the most tragic event in sports and devastates the family, the sports medicine team, and the local community. The recent episodes of in-the-field sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) of professional soccer players Fabrice Muamba (Figure 1) and Piermario Morosini have dramatically renewed the interest of the media and medical communities on why apparently healthy young individuals unexpectedly die during sports activities and what intervention might have avoided such a fatal event. Here, we briefly review the aetiology of an SCD in young competitive athletes and the currently available prevention strategies such as pre-participation screening (primary prevention) and early external defibrillation by using an automated external defibrillator (AED) (secondary prevention).