Playing video games can be as hazardous to the heart as playing sports – and in rare cases can send children into cardiac arrest, new research reveals.
Three children who suddenly lost consciousness while “excitedly” playing war games on their home computers sparked the joint New Zealand-Australian study.
The study found that playing video games can be fatal to people with congenital or inherited heart conditions.
Dr Jonathan Skinner, a cardiologist with the Auckland District Health Board, said two of these patients had an “aborted cardiac arrest”, which means they blacked out then woke up.
One patient had to be resuscitated.
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“There is no doubt that these rhythms were life-threatening,” he said.
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Three boys reportedly went into cardiac arrest playing video games.
Electronic games have been shown to significantly increase the heart rate of participants because of the heightened stimulation and excitement kids experience while playing, he said.
One of the children was based in New Zealand. The other two, including 11-year-old Nedal Chemaisse, were based in Australia.
Skinner first observed this phenomenon when a patient blacked out while playing a video game. He reported it to his colleague, Australian-based Dr Christian Turner, who had similar cases of patients.
Each of the three children observed had a rare and serious underlying heart rhythm abnormality.
But in two of these children, this was unknown previously.
While potential dangers of sports and cardiac conditions have been well documented, this is the first time it has included video games.
The article: Syncope due to Ventricular Arrhythmia Triggered by Electronic Gaming has been published in the latest edition of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.
Skinner said all cardiologists have a conflict of wanting children to be active but knowing that it can cause heart problems.
“But we have got used to managing these conditions well, with medicine and support,” he said.
“These days, more and more children aren’t playing sports and are instead sitting inside and play these games. We think they’re safe but in fact they might not be,” Skinner said.
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Cardiologist Jon Skinner.
Doctors may now have to consider offering the same type of support for children who play these video games as well as those who play sports.
The research showed the episodes of cardiac arrest (dangerous abnormal heart rhythm) happened when the child got very excited whilst playing the game, or in most cases, when the child was about to win the game.
Cardiac arrest is when the bottom part of the heart, instead of contracting in coordination, spasms.
The subject loses conscious because there is no oxygen getting to the brain.
If the heart doesn’t go back to normal, they have a cardiac arrest and die.
Skinner said from a heart perspective, playing video games is nowhere near as healthy as playing sports or being active.
But he suspects the type of excitement and stress from playing a video games is the same.
However, Skinner said it is important to note that these boys had rare conditions that affect only a very small proportion of children.
“Which means, while heart doctors always like to encourage children to be physically active, video games are not life-threatening to all children,”he said.
“However, we have another arena where we have to be conscious of protecting these [susceptible] children.”
Australian boy Nedal Chemaisse was one of the children in the study.
However, any child that has an episode of blacking out which is not explained needs to be seen by a doctor.
Skinner said initial investigations show there are several other international cases, but research will continue to find out how many cases to determine how common this is.
The study’s advice to parents:
Does this mean kids should not play video games?
As heart doctors we would always like to encourage children to be physically active rather than playing war games on a computer, but no, certainly not. It is important to note that these are rare conditions that affect only a very small proportion of children.
If this happens to your child, what should you do? Any child that has an episode of blacking out which is not explained needs to be seen by a doctor. Faints of one sort or another are common in children, and most are not serious, but sudden faints during excitement or exercise are often a sign of a dangerous (but usually treatable) heart condition.
For instance, if a child has an episode of blacking out during sporting or swimming activity, or when excitedly playing a video game, they should be seen by a doctor.
