Fattori di rischio di lesioni muscolari in giocatori di hockey professionisti

This research work was developed during a semester long internship in Geneva, Switzerland, in the Sports Traumatology Unit of Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève. The aim was to analyze the lesions occurring in professional hockey players, focusing the attention on muscular ones. During the 2006-2011 seasons, 412 lesions were recorded by team doctors in 51 different players. The total exposure time during the five seasons was 23854 hours. The injury rate was 17.2x1000 player game hours for all lesions and 7.7x1000 player game hours for muscular lesions. Lesions occurred more at the beginning and at the end of the season. More lesions involved inferior (31.2-58%) and superior limb (11.1-39.8%). Defensemen had an overall injury rate slightly superior than forwards (19.8 VS 18.9x1000 player game hours), while goalies had a significantly lower rate (4.3x1000 player game hours). Considering just muscular lesions forwards had 9.1x1000 player game hours, while defensemen 7.4x1000 and goalies 2.6x1000. Muscular contusions were present in very similar percentages in all players, while strains occurred more frequently in goalies (38% of lesions) than in forwards or defensemen (20 and 14%). Goalies are more at risk for muscular lesions than forwards or defensemen. Hip adductors injury rate was higher in defensemen (1.63x1000) than in forwards or goalies (1.5 and 0.7x1000). The vast majority of lesions occurred during games (69-85%), while the percentage during practice was pretty low (14.8-31%). The number of lesions increased with the number of matches played and with the weight of the player. Most of muscular lesions occurred with a no contact mechanism. Few for player contact or with other contact (boards, stick, puck, etc) The playing position resulted a risk factor for all lesions. Defensemen have a higher risk of getting injured, because of the highest number of contacts during the game (on ice there are three forwards, two defensemen and a goaltender. Goalies have an increased risk of muscular lesions though, maybe because they don't move for most of the time and have to do explosive movements all of a sudden. The number of games played is a risk factor for muscular lesions as well, we think because of the muscular fatigue deriving from a higher amount of matches. The weight has an influence in the insurgence of muscular lesions even though the p-Value was >0.05. We were not able to demonstrate the correlation between the skate blade hollow and hip adductor lesions, but we recommend further investigation in the players muscular strength, that could influence the number of this kind of lesions.