1Department of Biomedical Physiology and Kinesiology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, CANADA; 2Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, CANADA; and 3School of Engineering Science, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, CANADA.
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2017 Mar;49(3):573-580. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000001136.
Shoulder-to-head contact is the most common cause of concussions in ice hockey, accounting for 42% of cases in the National Hockey League. The goal of this project was to determine how shoulder pad stiffness, modified by adding foam padding over the shoulder cap of existing shoulder pads, affected head impact severity when participants delivered checks to an instrumented dummy.
Fifteen participants administered "the hardest shoulder checks they were comfortable delivering" to the head of a dummy equipped with triaxial accelerometers and gyros mounted in its helmet. Trials were conducted with participants wearing two common types of shoulder pads, with and without a 2-cm-thick layer of polyurethane foam over the shoulder pad cap.
When participants delivered checks with foam-modified pads versus unmodified pads, there was a decrease of 25.0% in the average peak linear head acceleration (28.73g vs 38.31g, mean difference = 9.58g, 95% confidence interval = 6.35-12.81, P < 0.0001) and a decrease of 12.4% in the average value of peak rotational head velocity (838.0°·s vs 956.7°·s, mean difference = 118.65°·s, 95% confidence interval = 55.37-181.94, P = 0.001). The protective benefit of the foam layer did not depend on the type of shoulder pad or the checking scenario.
The integration of foam padding on top of the plastic caps of shoulder pads reduced impact severity to the head and warrants further examination as a method for contributing to the prevention of brain injuries in ice hockey.
肩部与头部的碰撞是冰球运动中最常见的导致脑震荡的原因，占国家冰球联盟（NHL）病例的 42%。本项目的目的是确定当参与者向装备有三轴加速度计和陀螺仪的假人头部施加撞击时，通过在现有的肩垫帽上添加泡沫垫来改变肩垫的硬度，会如何影响头部撞击的严重程度。
15 名参与者向配备有三轴加速度计和陀螺仪的头盔的假人头部施加他们认为“最有力的肩部撞击”。试验中，参与者穿着两种常见类型的肩垫，一种是带有 2 厘米厚的聚亚安酯泡沫垫的肩垫，另一种是没有泡沫垫的肩垫。
与未使用泡沫垫的肩垫相比，使用泡沫垫的肩垫在平均峰值线性头部加速度上降低了 25.0%（28.73g 比 38.31g，平均差异=9.58g，95%置信区间=6.35-12.81，P<0.0001），在平均峰值旋转头部速度上降低了 12.4%（838.0°·s 比 956.7°·s，平均差异=118.65°·s，95%置信区间=55.37-181.94，P=0.001）。泡沫垫的保护作用并不依赖于肩垫的类型或撞击情况。
在肩垫的塑料帽上添加泡沫垫可以降低对头部的冲击严重程度，值得进一步研究，作为冰球运动中预防脑损伤的一种方法。
