Ice Hockey

INTRODUCTION

Ice hockey has been characterized as the fastest and most violent team sport in the world played with clubs (hockey sticks), a bullet (puck), and knives (skates). The high intensity of the sport results in frequent collisions between players and forceful impacts with the side boards, goal posts, pucks, and hockey sticks. The head and neck are particularly vulnerable to hockey-related injury, and the search for improved player safety to prevent these injuries has been an ongoing process for sports governing bodies and researchers.

METHODS

his prospective cohort study was conducted during the 1998-1999 Canadian Inter-University Athletics Union hockey season. The is a national league consisting of 4 divisions with identical officiating and player eligibility rules, except that each division may mandate use of protective equipment. The Ontario Universities Athletic Association requires that all athletes under its jurisdiction wear full face shields for every practice and game throughout the varsity season. In contrast, the Canada West Universities Athletic Association and Atlantic Universities Athletic Association require all athletes to wear, at a minimum, half shields for all practices and games. A half shield is a clear plastic visor that is attached to a helmet and extends down to the tip of a player's nose. A full face shield extends down to the bottom of a player's chin and covers the entire face. For this study, 2 cohorts were defined by their associations' facial protection mandate.

Team Therapists

Athletic therapists were important members of the investigative team because of their medical orientation and diagnostic skills; their relationships with athletes, coaches, and team physicians; and their daily presence at both practices and games. Canadian Athletic Therapist certification requires: enrollment in a university undergraduate degree program in kinesiology or physiotherapy

Injury Risk

rude relative risk estimates of head and facial injuries, neck injuries, concussions, and other types of injuries sustained by players from each cohort are shown in Table 1. Although we found a significant difference in rates of head and facial injuries between the Two groups , there was no significant difference in risk of sustaining a concussion, neck, or other injury for athletes wearing half shields compared with those wearing full face shields. Determined by multivariate (stratified) analysis, these findings were not confounded
 

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