Teres major muscle tear in two professional ice hockey players: Cases study and literature review

SummaryIce hockey is a sport renowned for its numerous injuries; different studies report between 13.8 and 20 lesions per 1000 athlete exposures. Exactly 65.5% of these injuries occur during games, compared to 34.5% during training sessions. And 35.1% of all injuries involve the lower extremity and 29.7% the upper extremity (results drawn from games and training combined). Determining whether muscle injuries are extrinsic (contusions) or intrinsic (tears) is of utmost importance since the former generally require simple follow-up, whereas the latter necessitates further investigations, appropriate treatment and often prolonged absence from sports for the injured athlete. To our knowledge, no publication to date has reported isolated damage of the teres major muscle in Ice Hockey players. Seven cases were reported amongst baseball pitchers. Two cases presented after a waterskiing traction accident and a further case has been described in a tennis player. In the present study, we report two cases of isolated teres major tear in ice hockey players. These two athletes were both professional players competing at the highest level in the Swiss Ice Hockey League.