Aspects of traumatology in ice hockey.

Ice hockey is the fastest team game played and is also considered to be one of the roughest of all sports, with a high injury incidence. Injuries and their causes were recorded by the questioning of players in the first league of the Federal Republic of Germany. Eighty-eight out of a total of 207 first league players were included in this study. Head injuries were found to occur most frequently: however, lesions of the shoulders and of the upper and lower extremities had a more detrimental effect. The links between causes and mechanisms of the different kinds of injuries make it clear that a marked tightening of the rules and an improvement in protective clothing would serve to reduce the incidence of injuries in ice hockey.