Citation

Schuller DE, Dankle SK, Martin M, Strauss RH. Arch. Otolaryngol. Head Neck Surg. 1989; 115(6): 714-717.

Affiliation

Department of Otolaryngology, Ohio State University, Columbus.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1989, American Medical Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

2719830

Abstract

Questionnaires designed to assess attitudes and use of headgear were completed by 537 Division I collegiate wrestlers. Only 35.2% of the wrestlers wore headgear all of the time during practice as opposed to 92.4% during competition, which was a statistically significant difference. The most common reason for not wearing headgear was discomfort (35%). There were 482 participating in nonschool team events, and 203 (42%) described headgear use as "seldom or never." However, there was a statistically significant difference of developing auricular hematoma while wearing headgear (26%) vs not wearing headgear (52%). There were 208 (39%) who reported a permanent auricular deformity resulting from an injury that occurred with (10.6%) or without (26.6%) headgear. These results suggest that headgear provides only partial protection and that nonuse is widespread, causing a surprisingly high frequency of permanent auricular deformities.