Spinal Injuries Due To Hockey

Abstract

SUMMARYAlthough many types of sports and recreational activities have been identified as common causes of acute spinal cord injury, hockey has been a rare cause of acute cord injury in Canada or elsewhere. For example, from 1948 to 1973 there were no patients with cord injuries due to hockey in a series of 55 patients with acute cord injuries due to sports or other recreational activities admitted to two Toronto hospitals. In contrast, between 1974 and 1981, the Acute Spinal Cord Injury Unit, Sunnybrook Medical Centre treated six patients with cervical spinal injury due to hockey, five of whom were seen during a 13 month period from September, 1980 to October, 1981. Five of the six sustained a severe acute cervical spinal cord injury, and one a cervical root injury. The cord injury was complete in two cases, while three had complete motor loss but incomplete sensory loss below the level of the lesion. All were males aged 15 to 26 years. Of the players with cord injury, four struck the boards with the neck flexed, and one struck another player with the neck flexed. The one player without cord injury struck the boards with his neck extended. The commonest bony injury was a burst fracture of C5 or C6. One of the patients with a complete cord injury died three months later of a pulmonary embolus, and the other patients with cord injury showed some recovery of root function, but little or no cord recovery. The reasons for the increase in spinal injuries in hockey are unknown.

Neurologic Injuries in Hockey

“…6,[25][26][27][28][29] The risk for catastrophic outcome is greatest if a player's neck is flexed in posture at the time of impact with the boards, a posture greatly increasing the risk for a vertebral burst fracture and associated cervical cord compression. 6,30,31 The sequence of images in the top row of Fig. 1 shows an example of this type of collision: in this case, the player suffered only a concussion with no associated cervical spine injury, likely protected by the slight neck extension apparent before impact.…”

Head and Neck Injuries Among Ice Hockey Players Wearing Full Face Shields vs Half Face Shields

“…[12][13][14] However, a trend of increasing catastrophic hockey-related injuries to the cervical spine has led to speculation that use of the full face shield may increase players' risk of sustaining a neck injury, possibly due to biomechanical alterations or changes in the style of play. [15][16][17][18][19][20] To our knowledge, no prospective cohort or experimental research has been conducted in the sport of ice hockey to address this issue.…”

Ice hockey injuries: incidence, nature and causes.

“…We reported a high incidence of injury during hockey games, while that during practice was very low5. Although the majority of injuries were minor (73%) and only 8% major5, extremely severe injuries especially to the eye and the spine have previously been noted to occur in hockey1'7'14 15 …”