Head Impact Exposure in Girls’ High School Varsity Lacrosse Players

Abstract

Evidence suggests that girls’ lacrosse players have higher rates of head and facial injuries than boys’ lacrosse players. Reducing head impact exposure has been proposed as a strategy for reducing the risk of head injury. To date no studies have investigated head impact exposure among girls’ high school lacrosse players. PURPOSE: To quantify head impact exposure (frequency, location and magnitude) and describe differences in exposure by session type (practice or game) among players during a single season of girls high school varsity lacrosse. METHODS: One entire girls’ varsity lacrosse team at a large metropolitan high school in Virginia participated. Twenty players (16.5±0.6 years, 166.5±5.0 cm, 62.4±7.1 kg) were instrumented with a commercially available To date no studies have investigated head impact exposure among girls’ high school lacrosse players, adhered over each player’s right mastoid process. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all impacts. RESULTS: A total of 5,827 impacts were measured during 13 games (1,224 impacts) and 27 practices (4,603 impacts) for the Spring 2014 season. On average, 4.7 impacts were experienced per player per game and 8.5 impacts per player per practice. The median linear and rotational accelerations were 29.2±19.3 g (practice: 28.8±19.2 g, game: 31.0±19.7 g) and 4,976.5±3,411.4 rad/s2 (practice: 4,803.1±3,346.2 rad/s2, game: 5,619.4±3,527.4 rad/s2), respectively, for all impacts observed. The side of the head, constituting 51% of all impacts, accounted for the highest number of impact exposures in both practices (53%) and games (44%). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, these data quantify the head impact exposure (frequency, location and magnitude) and describe differences in exposure by session type in high school girls’ varsity lacrosse. Decreasing an individual’s head impact exposure has been proposed as a pragmatic intervention for reducing the risk of brain injury. Interventions to decrease head impact exposure should be evidence-based, sport specific and consider differences based upon level of play. Supported by US Lacrosse Sports Science & Safety Committee Grant.