Correspondence (letter to the editor): Fatal Outcome Cannot Be Ruled Out

The current article is an important contribution to a type of “professional sports” in which the aim is to render the opponent unable to fight by means of inflicting intentional bodily harm (a fatal outcome cannot be ruled out). The International Consensus Statement on Concussion in Sport is worth mentioning in this context (1). It explains all important aspects and lists recommendations for diagnostic evaluation and therapy. Such (cerebral) concussion also occurs in other types of sports, such as football (American football), with similar late sequelae in some athletes, rarely baseball and ice hockey (puck injuries) with acute trauma, such as cardiac concussion. The authors’ analysis again throws up the question of whether this type of “sports”, which has a high profile in the media, should be allowed from a medical and ethical perspective. The gladiators of ancient Rome spring to mind. We need to ask whether all boxers should be genetically screened for the ApoE4-polymorphism, in order to remove those at particular risk from this “sport”.