Ice Hockey Injuries in a Japanese Elite Team: A 3-Year Prospective Study

Abstract

Context: As the Asian Ice Hockey League gradually expands and becomes more competitive, ice hockey-related injuries may increase. However, no reports have been published on ice hockey injuries in Japan, including the method of injury and the daily supervision of the players during the regular season.Objective: To prospectively study the incidence, types, and mechanisms of ice hockey injuries in an elite Japanese ice hockey team.Design: Prospective observational cohort study design. Main Outcome Measure(s): Data were collected for 3 consecutive seasons using an injury reporting form.Results: The overall game injury rate was 74.3 per 1000 player-game hours and 11.7 per 1000 player-game hours for injuries resulting in any time loss. The overall practice injury rates were 11.2 per 1000 player-practice hours and 1.1 per 1000 player-practice hours for injuries resulting in any time loss. Forwards had the highest rate of injury, followed by defensemen and then goalkeepers. Contusions were the most common injury, followed by strains, lacerations, and sprains.Conclusions: Most injuries among Japanese ice hockey players occurred during games. Game or play intensity may influence the injury rate during games.Key Words: injury rates, epidemiology, injury surveillance Key PointsN Most injuries occurred during games, which were associated with greater play intensity than practices. N Forwards demonstrated the highest rate of injury, followed by defensemen and then goalkeepers. N The most common injuries were contusions, strains, lacerations, and sprains.

The incidence of concussion in professional and collegiate ice hockey: are we making progress? A systematic review of the literature

“…Interestingly, Agel et al 4 and Kuzuhara et al 19 report an identical concussion incidence of 0.10/1000 PH (see online supplementary table S1).…”

“…The incidence of concussion was reported either as a percentage out of the total number of injuries or in terms of injuries per 1000 athlete-exposures (AE),15 18 23 practice-hours (PH),4 19 game-hours (GH),4 5 19 20 22 24 per 100 players22 or per 1000 games 25…”

“…AE refers to an athlete participating in one game or practice, in which he is exposed to the possibility of sports-related injury while game and PH represent the time spent in game or practice only 19. Such mean values do not allow for individual player evaluation since ice time is quite inconsistent.…”

“…Such mean values do not allow for individual player evaluation since ice time is quite inconsistent. While concussions rarely occur during practice,4 19 a pooling of AE and GH results is not possible.…”

“…Consequently, the game injury rate may become inflated as a result. Others based the calculated game exposures on 125 20 or all players who participated in some form each game,19 for example, including the back-up goalkeepers as they were also at risk for injury. It may be argued that the latter two concepts allow more accurate incidence calculations.…”