Drs. Popkin and Trofa Publish Systematic Review in Dove Medical Press

Providers from the Shoulder, Elbow, and Sports Medicine Service at Columbia Orthopedics published a systematic review in Dove Medical Press. The article, “A Systematic Review of the Orthopedic Literature Involving National Hockey League Players,” sought to summarize data from January 1980 and March 2020 on orthopedic injuries experienced by professional hockey players.

The review; authored by Charles A. Popkin, MD, David P. Trofa, MD, and two MD candidates; followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.

“Ice Hockey is a fast-paced collision sport and requires tremendous dexterity, skill and power to play,” said Dr. Popkin. “There are some intrinsic dangers to the game. This study helped look at injury patterns in professional hockey players over the last 40 years.”

The team searched three electronic databases; CINAHL, Embase, and PubMed for literature that focused on NHL players. Thirty-nine articles highlighting 13,850 players were analyzed and divided by where on the players body the injury took place. The top four injures from the analysis included hip and pelvis (18 articles), general/other (11 articles), ankle (8 articles), and knee (8 articles).

“The study found that most injuries occurred in lower extremities. Injuries were more frequent in games than practice and more than half of the players missed 1 game due to injury over the course of a season,” said Dr. Popkin.

The completed review supplied team physicians with a record of literature focused on the orthopedic injuries professional hockey players sustained over the years.

“This systematic review also highlights the paucity of published work looking at injury in NHL players,” said Dr. Popkin. “Additional study using the NHL Injury Surveillance System may be helpful in looking at injury prevention strategies and predicting performance after injury when the players get back on the ice.”

Read the full article here.