Chasing the Cup: A Comprehensive Review of Spinal Cord Injuries in Hockey

Abstract

Ice hockey is a high-speed sport with a high rate of associated injury, including spinal cord injury (SCI). The incidence of hockey-related SCI has increased significantly in more recent years. A comprehensive literature search was conducted with the PubMed, Medline, Google Scholar, and Web of Science databases using the phrases "hockey AND spinal cord injuries" to identify relevant studies pertaining to hockey-related SCIs, equipment use, anatomy, and biomechanics of SCI, injury recognition, and return-to-play guidelines.Fifty-three abstracts and full texts were reviewed and included, ranging from 1983 to 2021. The proportion of catastrophic SCIs is high when compared to other sports. SCIs in hockey occur most commonly from a collision with the boards due to intentional contact resulting in axial compression, as well as flexion-related teardrop fractures that lead to spinal canal compromise and neurologic injury. Public awareness programs, improvements in equipment, and rule changes can all serve to minimize the risk of SCI.Hockey has a relatively high rate of associated SCIs occurring most commonly due to flexion-distraction injuries from intentional contact. Further investigation into equipment and hockey arena characteristics as well as future research into injury recognition and removal from and return to play is necessary.

Two Minutes for Roughing: A National Analysis of Ice Hockey Injuries from American Trauma Centers

“…Spinal cord injuries in ice hockey, for example, have been shown to result from contact injuries that cause spine flexion-distraction. 18 The forearm injury difference by sex may also be reflective of differences in bone mineral density by sex or other biologically-based baseline risk factors for fracture. There are a small number of existing studies that contrast injuries sustained during ice hockey by the sex of the player.…”

“…Over the study period, there were 306 patients with hockey-related injuries (<1% of all patients in the NTDB). The median age was 15 [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25] years and ranged from 5 to 71 years (Table 1). The majority of patients were male (n = 279, 91%).…”