| It has become common protocol to remove the facemask from football helmets when managing a suspected cervical spine injury (CSI). To date, there has been no research using three-dimensional (3-D) video to document tool effectiveness by assessing head movement during facemask removal nor, has any previous research assessing head movement included the use of a recently developed tool called the FM Extractor (Sports Medicine Concepts, Inc.). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of specific facemask removal tools during facemask removal (or, retraction).;The tools used included the FME, Trainer's Angel (TA), anvil pruners (AP), and PVC (PVC) pipe cutters. Their effectiveness was evaluated by assessing resultant movement of the helmet. Movement was analyzed using a Motion Analysis, Inc. (CA) 3-D videography system. The amount of time to retract the facemask, hand placement patterns and tool preferences were also assessed. Eleven certified athletic trainers participated in the study. Subjects retracted the facemask in a randomized order using each tool.;The results indicated that the AP (M = 105.91s) allowed subjects to perform the facemask removal task the fastest followed by the FME (M = 176.82s), TA (M = 184.18s), and PVC (M = 256.55s), and the AP (2.0) and FME (2.1) were the tools that were most preferred. The AP (M = 1.64) had the fewest instances when two hands needed to be used, and there were no significant differences for the number of times subjects switched the tool from the dominant to non-dominant hand. Subjects placed the AP (M = 3.27) down and picked it back up the least.;For flexion/extension movement of the head, the means of displacement in degrees were 3.47° +/- 1.97°, 3.02° +/- 1.86, 2.37° +/- 0.86, 5.92° +/- 0.86 for the PVC, TA, FME and AP, respectively. There were no significant differences between tools. For rotation, the average displacement was 3.50° +/- 2.09°, 2.42° +/- 1.39, 2.02° +/- 1.34, and 2.66° +/- 1.48° for the PVC, TA, FME and AP, respectively. A significant difference was found between the PVC and FME. For lateral flexion, the average displacement in degrees was 5.27° +/- 2.96°, 3.55° +/- 2.13, 3.23° +/- 0.98, and 5.75° +/- 4.50° for the PVC, TA, FME and AP, respectively. A significant difference was noted between the PVC and FME. The PVC and AP created significantly more movement than the FME when all planes were combined.;Results of this study indicate the FME and AP are both highly preferred by users. The AP performed the task in the least amount of time, and the FME performed the task with the least amount of movement. The FME and AP allowed subjects to perform removal without having to use their non-cutting hand as frequently when compared with the TA and PVC. |
