title: The National Football Head and Neck Injury Registry. Report and conclusions 1978.
abstract: The National Football Head and Neck Injury Registry has documented 1,129 injuries since 1971 that involved hospitalization for more than 72 hours, surgical intervention, fracture-dislocation, permanent paralysis, or death. Of this group of injuries, 550 were fracture-dislocations of the cervical spine, of which 176 were associated with permanent quadriplegia. It appears that during the last two decades, there has been a decrease in the incidence of direct fatalities, head injuries associated with intracranial hemorrhage, and injuries associated with death. Conversely, cervical spine injuries with fracture-dislocation and with permanent quadriplegia have increased. We believe that these observations are the result of the development of a protective helmet-face mask system that has effectively protected the head, and by so doing has allowed it to be used as a battering ram in tackling and blocking techniques, thus placing the cervical spine at risk of injury.
mesh_terms: D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D006259:Craniocerebral Trauma / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005538:Football; D006801:Humans; D019838:Neck Injuries; D011482:Protective Devices / Q000592:standards; D011782:Quadriplegia / Q000209:etiology; D012042:Registries; D012306:Risk; D013124:Spinal Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology; D014481:United States