The Protective Effect of Kevlar ® Socks Against Hockey Skate Blade Injuries: A Biomechanical Study
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Objectives: Several recent high profile injuries to elite players in the National Hockey League (NHL) secondary to skate blade lacerations have generated significant interest in these injuries and possible methods to protect against them. These injuries are typically due to direct contact of the skate blade of another player with posterior aspect of the calf resulting in a range of potential injuries to tendons or neurovascular structures. The Achilles tendon is most commonly involved. Kevlar® reinforced socks have recently become available for hockey players to wear and are cited as providing possible protection against such injuries. However, there has been no investigation of the possible protective effects of Kevlar® reinforced socks against skate blade injuries, and it is currently unknown what protective effects, if any, that these socks provide against these injuries. The proposed study sought to address this by conducting a biomechanical investigation of the protective effects of Kevlar® reinforced socks against Achilles tendon injuries in a simulated model of skate blade injury using human cadaver limbs. This novel investigation is the first to address the possible benefits to hockey players of wearing Kevlar® reinforced socks. Methods: Seven matched pairs of human cadaver lower limbs were fitted with a Kevlar ® reinforced sock comprised of 60% Kevlar®/20% Coolmax® polyester/18 % Nylon/12% Spandex ( Bauer Elite Performance Skate Sock) on one limb and a standard synthetic sock comprised of 51% polyester/47% nylon/2% spandex ( Bauer Premium Performance Skate Sock) on the contralateral limb as a control. Each limb was then mounted on a Materials Testing System (MTS) with the ankle dorsiflexed to 90° and the knee held in full extension using a custom designed jig. Specimens were then impacted with a hockey skate blade directed at the posterior calf, 12 cm above the heel, at an angle of 45° and a speed of 31m/s, to a penetration depth of 4.3 cm, to simulate a typical ice hockey injury. Peak force, energy and power were calculated from the force-displacement data collected from the 7 matched pair trials. The cadavers were then dissected to identify the extent of the injury the skin and Achilles tendon from blade impact. Analysis of variance was used to test for a significant difference between the groups. Results: None (0/7) of the achilles tendons were lacerated when protected with Kevlar® reinforced socks; whereas all (7/7) achilles tendons tested using the standard synthetic sock were completely severed (Figure 1). Peak force (4030 +/- 1191 N vs. 2037 +/- 729 N), energy (81.4 +/- 38.9 J vs. 26.3 +/- 13.2 J) and power (471.2 +/- 166.7 W vs. 258.3 +/- 93.5 W) were all significantly (p<0.05) increased in the Kevlar® reinforced sock group compared to the standard synthetic sock group in our testing model (Figures 2 and 3). Conclusion: The Kevlar® reinforced socks provided significantly more cut resistance and were able to withstand a significantly larger peak force, energy and power from skate blade impact and prevent achilles tendon laceration when compared to standard synthetic hockey socks in a biomechanical testing model using human cadaver limbs. This is the first investigation to address the benefits of wearing Kevlar® reinforced hockey socks in a simulated model of hockey skate injuries and our results suggest a significant protective effect from the use of Kevlar® reinforced socks against hockey skate injuries.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.003 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".