eosinophilia should first be ruled out (Ayars, 2000;
Bousquet et al, 2003).
d. Many athletes self-medicate with decongestants
for this disorder; however, this category of medi-
cines is on the banned substances list for the
International Olympic Committee (IOC). There
has been some promise in treating this disorder
with ipratropium bromide nasal spray, a medica-
tion that is not on the prohibited list.PREVENTION
•Youth hockey programs need to educate players,
coaches, and parents of the importance of knowing
and following the rules (Anderson, Griesemer, and
Johnson, 2000).
- Body checking should not be allowed in youth hockey
for children ages 15 and under (Anderson, Griesemer,
and Johnson, 2000; Brust et al, 1992).
•Fair-play rules should be used to decrease the inci-
dence of injury in youth hockey. This system gives
teams credit for sportsmanship in the final standings
of league and tournament play. Teams have points
added to their totals for staying under a preestablished
limit of penalties per game, while teams that rely on
intimidation and foul play have points subtracted.
Implementation of this style of play was shown to
reduce the number of high school hockey injuries
(Roberts et al, 1996). - Players, coaches, parents, and officials should be edu-
cated on the dangers of checking another player from
behind (Anderson, Griesemer, and Johnson, 2000). - The officials and coaches should be encouraged to
strictly enforce the rules against illegal body checking.
a. These forms of checking include boarding, charg-
ing, checking from behind, cross checking, elbow-
ing, and roughing. - Contact with an opposing player made above the
shoulder using the fist, forearm, elbow, shoulder, knee
or stick must be penalized. If such an act was deliber-
ate, the stiffest sanctions should be used. - Deliberate attempts to injure other players are illegal
and should be heavily penalized. - Rules against high-sticking should be strictly
enforced.
a. Frequently occurs during a slap shot or when
attempting to bat down an airborne puck.- During a slap shot, it is considered high sticking
if the stick comes above the level of the waist on
the back swing.
i. Slap shots are illegal in midget play. - Batting a puck down with the stick above the
shoulders is also considered high sticking.- Fighting needs to be discouraged by officials,
coaches, players, and players’ parents. - Players should be encouraged or mandated to wear
helmets with full coverage facemasks at any level of
play for both game and practice situations. - Ensure adequate ventilation in and monitoring of air
quality in indoor ice rinks. - The medical team providing coverage for ice hockey
should have the availability of medical equipment for
the stabilization of potentially devastating injury at
the ice rink. This should include a spine board, cervi-
cal collar, and cardiopulmonary resuscitation equip-
ment (Ghiselli, Schaadt, and McAllister, 2003). The
logistics of how to get this equipment to the injured
athlete on the ice should be preestablished. The emer-
gency plan should be in place and practiced prior to
the beginning of the season so that in the event of a
devastating injury, morbidity due to delay in stabiliza-
tion can be reduced.
- Fighting needs to be discouraged by officials,
- During a slap shot, it is considered high sticking
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2003.512 SECTION 6 • SPORTS-SPECIFIC CONSIDERATIONS