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. 2022 Apr 18;10(4):23259671221085968.
doi: 10.1177/23259671221085968. eCollection 2022 Apr.

A Scoping Review of Injuries in Amateur and Professional Men's Ice Hockey

Patrick F Szukics  1 , Peters T Otlans  2 , Alfonso Arevalo  3 , Matthew Meade  1 , Peter DeLuca  4 , John P Salvo  4
Affiliations

A Scoping Review of Injuries in Amateur and Professional Men's Ice Hockey

Patrick F Szukics et al. Orthop J Sports Med. .

Abstract

Background: Orthopaedic injuries are common in ice hockey at all levels and can result in physical and psychological adverse effects on these athletes.

Purpose: Primarily, to summarize published data on orthopaedic hockey injuries at the junior through professional level. Secondarily, to characterize the literature based on anatomic site injured, return-to-play rates, cause/mechanism of injury, time lost, and treatments used.

Study design: Scoping review; Level of evidence, 4.

Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane library, and SCOPUS were searched using the terms "hockey" and "injuries" using PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines, and 4163 studies involving orthopaedic injuries were identified. Our inclusion criteria consisted of accessible full-text articles that evaluated orthopaedic injuries in men's ice hockey athletes of all levels. We excluded case reports and articles evaluating women's ice hockey injuries, as well as those evaluating nonorthopaedic injuries, such as concussions; traumatic brain injuries; and facial, dental, and vascular injuries, among others. Studies were divided based on level of play and anatomic site of injury. Level of evidence, year published, country of corresponding author, method of data collection, incidence of injury per athlete-exposure, and time lost were extracted from each article.

Results: A total of 92 articles met the inclusion criteria and were performed between 1975 and 2020, with the majority published between 2015 and 2020. These were divided into 8 anatomic sites: nonanatomic-specific (37%), intra-articular hip (20.7%), shoulder (9.8%), knee (8.7%), trunk/pelvis (7.6%), spine (7.6%), foot/ankle (6.5%), and hand/wrist (2.2%). Of these studies, 71% were level 4 evidence. Data were obtained mostly via surveillance programs and searches of publicly available information (eg, injury reports, player profiles, and press releases).

Conclusion: This scoping review provides men's hockey players and physicians taking care of elite ice hockey athletes of all levels with a single source of the most current literature regarding orthopaedic injuries. Most research focused on nonanatomic-specific injuries, intra-articular hip injuries, knee injuries, and shoulder injuries, with the majority having level 4 evidence.

Keywords: athletic training; epidemiology; ice hockey; injury prevention.

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Conflict of interest statement

One or more of the authors has declared the following potential conflict of interest or source of funding: P.T.O. has received education payments from Liberty Surgical, Summit Surgical, and Smith & Nephew. P.D. has received education payments from Liberty Surgical. J.P.S. has received education payments from Liberty Surgical and consulting fees from Stryker. AOSSM checks author disclosures against the Open Payments Database (OPD). AOSSM has not conducted an independent investigation on the OPD and disclaims any liability or responsibility relating thereto.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Flowchart of article screening process.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Number of studies based on anatomic site. No. of hand/wrist studies is 2.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Number of studies based on (A) level of evidence, (B) year of publication, and (C) country of publication. US, United States.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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