Epidemiology and trends of adult ice hockey injuries presenting to United States emergency departments: A ten-year analysis from 2007-2016.

Abstract Purpose The adult population is under-represented in existing ice hockey injury studies, despite the number of United States (US) adult ice hockey players increasing from 103,533 in 2007 to 180,400 in 2016 (74%). This study establishes trends in demographics, injury location, and injury type for adult ice hockey players (≥19 years old) in the United States. Methods The National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) was queried for all ice hockey injuries from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2016. Cases under age 19 were excluded. Each injury's narrative text field was reviewed to determine mechanism of injury. Results A total of 1,653 patients, representing an estimated 68,786 ice-hockey related injuries, presented to NEISS-participating US EDs. The most commonly injured body parts were the face (n = 12,432, 18.1%), head (n = 10,201, 14.8%), shoulder (n = 9,654, 14.0%) and ankle (n = 5,389, 7.8%). The most common diagnoses made were laceration (n = 18,153, 26.4%), strain/sprain (n = 12,202, 17.7%), fracture (n = 10,079, 14.7%), contusion (n = 9,283, 13.5%) and concussion (n = 4,794, 7.0%). The most common mechanisms of injury were falling (n = 11,786, 18.7%), puck contact (n = 10,544, 15.3%) and player contact (n = 9,449, 13.7%). Concussions increased from 46 in 2007 to 928 in 2016 (R2 = 0.8, β = 0.9, p  Conclusions Despite changing trends in age and sex-related demographics, the majority of injuries in this population may be preventable with adequate enforcement of protective gear use. Increased education amongst players, coaches, trainers, orthopaedic surgeons and primary care physicians should be encouraged to minimize injuries.