Research

SECTION A. INTRODUCTION There has been a growing awareness about concussion injury in sport, particularly in the last decade. Ten years ago, it was estimated that upwards of “…300 000 sport-related concussions occur[ed] annually in the United States and account[ed] for 75% of all sport-related brain injuries” (Bloom et al., 2008, p.295). Given the more educated understanding of concussion injury and its symptoms, coupled with the significant increase in international sport participation, this number is significantly larger today. With a better understanding of the potential negative performance and health consequences of this type of injury, researchers are focusing their efforts on fast-paced sports involving high-speed collisions (Dick, 2009). Ice hockey is a sport unlike any other. What separates hockey from all other contact sports, is that players travel at exceptionally high rates of speed making contact with not only other players, but hard surfaces and objects such as boards, ice, glass, and goal posts. In a setting where speed and rigid obstacles are combined, the likelihood of acceleration and deceleration forces interacting and resulting in injury, especially to the head, significantly increases. For this reason, it has been determined that ice hockey produces some of the highest rates of concussion in comparison with all other contact sports. Surprisingly though, despite the fact that concussion has been identified as a considerable medical problem in hockey, it has proven to often receive the least amount of medical attention (Goodman et al., 2001). An increased awareness as to the gender-specific incidence and symptomology in elite level hockey players, is important as it can have a direct bearing on recommendations intended to protect participants from unnecessary injury. In addition, further information in this domain, will contribute to improved diagnostic techniques and tools, prevention methods and treatment

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