Increased Incidence of Thumb Injuries in Intercollegiate Men's Lacrosse

The purpose of this study was to compare the relative incidence of thumb injuries in men's lacrosse with similar intercollegiate stickhandling sports. In this descriptive, epidemiological study, NCAA Injury Surveillance System data was gathered pertaining to hand injuries in gloved, stickhandling sports (men’s ice hockey, men’s lacrosse, and women’s lacrosse). Data analysis was performed to determine the relative exposure of the thumb with respect to total hand injuries. During 16 intercollegiate seasons, there were 692 thumb, finger, and hand injuries in 3,038,255 athletic exposures. Total thumb injuries were significantly increased in men's lacrosse, accounting for 59.4% of total hand injuries when compared to women's lacrosse (42%) and ice hockey (35.8%) (p<0.001). Thumb fractures and contusions were each also found to be significantly increased (p<0.001) when compared to women's lacrosse and ice hockey. Injury rates of the thumb are significantly elevated in men’s intercollegiate lacrosse. Recommendations include development of gloves with improved thumb protection. Background Lacrosse is an extremely popular men’s sport. At the intercollegiate level, it is a competition that combines speed, power, and extremely hard impact objects. These objects include “crosses”, with plastic heads and wood, composite or hollow metal shafts, the solid rubber ball, the opponents, and goal cages. Due to body checking, as well as legal checking of either the crosse head or shaft with the opponent’s crosse, there is extensive potential for injury to the upper extremity. As in other contact stick-handling sports, such as men’s ice hockey and women’s lacrosse, protective gloves are worn in an effort to minimize injury rates. This study was conducted to evaluate the injury rates of various intercollegiate stick-handling sports in order to determine whether the intercollegiate men’s lacrosse player is at increased risk for certain injuries. Materials and Methods