Quantifying head impact exposure, mechanisms and kinematics using instrumented mouthguards in female high school lacrosse

ABSTRACT

Current debate exists regarding the need for protective headwear in female lacrosse. To inform this issue, the current study quantified head impact exposure, mechanisms and kinematics in female lacrosse using instrumented mouthguards. A female high school varsity lacrosse team of 17 players wore the Stanford Instrumented Mouthguard (MiG) during 14 competitive games. Video footage was reviewed to remove false-positive recordings and verify head impacts, which resulted in a rate of 0.32 head impacts per athlete-exposure. Of the 31 video-confirmed head impacts, 54.8% were identified as stick contacts, 38.7% were player contacts and 6.5% were falls. Stick contacts had the greatest peak head kinematics. The most common impact site was the side of the head (35.5%), followed by the face/jaw (25.8%), forehead (6.5%), and crown (6.5%). Impacts to the face/jaw region of the head had significantly (p < 0.05) greater peak kinematics compared to other regions of the head, which may have resulted from the interaction of the impacting surface, or the lower jaw, and the sensor. The current study provides initial data regarding the frequency, magnitude and site of impacts sustained in female high school lacrosse. A larger sample size of high quality head impact data in female lacrosse is required to confirm these findings.

KEYWORDS:

• General sports trauma
• head injuries/concussion
• injury prevention
• paediatric sports medicine

Acknowledgments

The authors thank members of the research team for their contributions to data collection and analysis: Ronni Kessler, Fairuz Mohammed, Valerie Lallo and Katie Simms. The authors also thank David Camarillo and members of the Stanford University CamLab for their collaboration and support: August Domel, Yuzhe Liu and Nicholas Cecchi. In addition, the authors thank the students and parents from the Shipley School for their participation and appreciate the support from the Shipley School administration and athletic department: Michael Turner, Steve Piltch, Mark Duncan, Katelyn Taylor, Dakota Carroll, Kimberly Shaud and Kayleigh Jenkins.

Data availability

Data are available upon reasonable request.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Pennsylvania Department of Health (SAP100077078) and the National Institute of Neurologic Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health (R01NS097549 and R24NS098518). The content of this original research is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Pennsylvania Department of Health and/or the National Institutes of Health.