Rodowicz Kathleen Allen, Olberding Joseph E, Rau Andrew C
Exponent, Biomechanics Practice, 3440 Market Street Suite 600, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA,
Ann Biomed Eng. 2015 Apr;43(4):949-57. doi: 10.1007/s10439-014-1154-x. Epub 2014 Oct 18.
Over the past 10 years, lacrosse has grown increasingly popular, making it one of the fastest growing team sports in the country. Similar to other sporting activities, head injuries in lacrosse can and do occur, and the number of lacrosse-related head injuries has increased in recent years. In women's lacrosse, protective headgear is not required, but U.S. Lacrosse and the American Society for Testing and Materials are currently working to develop a headgear standard for the women's game. In the interim, some female lacrosse programs and individual players are wearing soft headgear during play. The effectiveness of this headgear is unknown. Testing was conducted to better understand the material properties of various types of headgear that may be used in lacrosse and the effect of this headgear on head impact response and head injury potential. For the evaluation of head impact response, an instrumented Hybrid III anthropomorphic test device (ATD) was impacted on the side of the head with lacrosse balls and the front and side of the head with a lacrosse stick. The linear and rotational impact response of the head and corresponding acceleration-based injury metrics are reported. Testing was then repeated with the ATD wearing different types of headgear. Tested headgear included a men's lacrosse helmet and two brands of commercially-available soft headgear. For the higher velocity ball impacts, there was no statistically-significant difference in the measured linear and rotational response of the head for the no headgear and soft headgear test conditions. For the lower velocity ball impacts, there was a small, yet statistically-significant, reduction in head linear acceleration for one of the soft headgears tested in comparison to the no headgear test condition, but there was not a statistically-significant difference in the rotational impact response with this headgear. These results indicate that the soft headgear would not be effective in reducing head injury potential during higher velocity ball impacts, such as ball speeds associated with shooting in women's lacrosse. The men's lacrosse helmet reduced both the linear and rotational response of the head for the higher and lower velocity ball impacts. Material testing showed that the padding in the hard helmet exhibited larger strain energy than the padding within the soft headgears when tested in compression. These results correlate with the larger reductions in head accelerations during ball impacts by the hard helmet. For the stick impacts, there were no statistically-significant differences in the lateral impact response of the head for the helmeted and soft headgear test conditions in comparison to the no headgear test condition, but there were statistically-significant, albeit small, differences in the frontal impact response of the head. The similar impact responses of the head during the stick impacts with and without headgear can be attributed to the relatively low severity of these impacts and the characteristics of the impactor.
在过去的10年里，长曲棍球越来越受欢迎，成为美国发展最快的团队运动之一。与其他体育活动类似，长曲棍球运动中会出现头部受伤的情况，而且近年来与长曲棍球相关的头部受伤数量有所增加。在女子长曲棍球运动中，并不要求佩戴防护头盔，但美国长曲棍球协会和美国材料与试验协会目前正在努力制定女子比赛的头盔标准。在此期间，一些女子长曲棍球项目和个别球员在比赛中佩戴软质头盔。这种头盔的有效性尚不清楚。进行测试是为了更好地了解长曲棍球运动中可能使用的各种头盔的材料特性，以及这种头盔对头部撞击反应和头部受伤可能性的影响。为了评估头部撞击反应，使用装有仪器的混合III型人体模拟试验装置（ATD），用长曲棍球击打头部侧面，用长曲棍球棍击打头部正面和侧面。报告了头部的线性和旋转撞击反应以及相应的基于加速度的损伤指标。然后让ATD佩戴不同类型的头盔重复进行测试。测试的头盔包括男子长曲棍球头盔和两个品牌的市售软质头盔。对于较高速度的球撞击，在不戴头盔和戴软质头盔的测试条件下，测量到的头部线性和旋转反应没有统计学上的显著差异。对于较低速度的球撞击，与不戴头盔的测试条件相比，测试的一种软质头盔使头部线性加速度有小幅但具有统计学意义的降低，但这种头盔的旋转撞击反应没有统计学上的显著差异。这些结果表明，在较高速度的球撞击（如女子长曲棍球射门时的球速）过程中，软质头盔在降低头部受伤可能性方面无效。男子长曲棍球头盔在较高和较低速度的球撞击时都降低了头部的线性和旋转反应。材料测试表明，在压缩测试中，硬质头盔中的衬垫比软质头盔中的衬垫表现出更大的应变能。这些结果与硬质头盔在球撞击时头部加速度的更大降低相关。对于球棍撞击，与不戴头盔的测试条件相比，戴头盔和戴软质头盔的测试条件下头部的横向撞击反应没有统计学上的显著差异，但头部的正面撞击反应存在统计学上显著的小差异。戴头盔和不戴头盔时球棍撞击过程中头部类似的撞击反应可归因于这些撞击的相对较低严重程度以及撞击器的特性。
