Sports: Junior Hockey: System exposed by brave med scientists and reporters

Canadian Press, the service to newspapers print and online, also has an online edition of its own. Today CP is running an article by Sheryl Ubelacker "Concussion rate in junior hockey 7 times higher than previously reported: study" (Nov1,2k10). Via Winnipeg Free Press online. Here's Ubelacker's analysis:

TORONTO - The proportion of junior hockey players who suffer concussion is far more significant than previously thought, says a groundbreaking study that has researchers calling for changes to how Canada's national game is played at all levels.

"The results of this study demonstrate an incidence of concussion significantly higher than any other study in the literature — seven times higher," lead investigator Dr. Paul Echlin told a news conference Monday.

Echlin, a sports medicine specialist in London, Ont., said the study recorded the number of concussions sustained by members of two unnamed junior hockey teams during the 2009-2010 regular season.

Seventeen players suffered a total of 21 concussions during 52 physician-observed games — with almost one-quarter of those occurring among players involved in on-ice fights, say the researchers, whose study is published in the November issue of the journal Neurological Focus.

Echlin said that during the season, 29 per cent of players who had a concussion went on to suffer a second or recurrent concussions — brain injuries that have the potential to result in lifelong physical and cognitive deficits.

-- Sportikos posting Ubelacker

Click the time-stamp below to Read more ...