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Abstract
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Most football fatalities are due to head and neck injuries. Conventional football helmets are deficient in protecting the cervical spine and head. After impact, plastic shells have inherent areas of weakness. A new design, consisting of a fiber glass shell and a non-resilient liner, offers vastly superior protection. It is more comfortable and reduces many unpleasant subjective sensations that are experienced by players wearing standard helmets.
Injuries to the head and neck account for 72 per cent of all fatalities directly attributed to football. It is surprising that the fatality rate is not higher since there are about 21 million participants. The incidence of fatality is 1.5 per 100,000 exposures in high school and 2.5 per 100,000 exposures in college. This is lower than the fatality rate associated with firearms, swimming and driving.
In the past 31 years, 539 fatalities have been directly attributed to football. Although the number is not alarming, the steady rise in the percentage of head and neck injuries is a cause for concern. A study of high school athletic injuries in Wisconsin revealed that 16 of every 1,000 participants sustained head, facial or neck injuries. Assuming that the same relationship existed in the 760,000 high school football players last fall, the number involved is worth an endeavor to reduce the incidence of these injuries.
The number of indirect fatalities is about one-half that of direct fatalities. An interesting fact is that 29.5 per cent of the indirect fatalities are due to heart failure and that 35.0 per cent are the result of infection. This emphasizes the importance of adequate pre-season and intra-season examinations.
Keywords: American football;
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