Kukla's Korner Hockey
Three KHL Players Found to Have Heart Problems
by Alanah McGinley on 11/10/08 at 02:51 PM ET
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Last week the KHL announced it was undertaking medical evaluations across the league and invited media members to observe the process.
Today, after the first round of evaluations have been completed on some 67 players under the age of 20, some preliminary results were made public:
Based upon the first round of examinations, three KHL players were found to have heart problems. These athletes were referred to cardiologist specialists to undergo more testing.
The KHL’s Medical Center won’t be banning players as yet; the cardiologists will make that determination.
Full text of the press release is below:
REVIEW OF INITIAL KHL PLAYER MEDICAL EVALUATIONS
Three Players Identified with Heart Problems Are Referred to Cardiologist Specialists
The first planned medical checkups of current Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) players were performed Thursday, November 5, through Saturday, November 8, at the Roszdrava Medical Rehabilitation Center, Russia’s main sports medicine facility. The first participants in the program, dubbed the “KHL Medical Passport,” were 67 players under 20 years of age.
“The Roszdrava Center is a unique place,” said Vladimir Preobrazhensky, Director of the Center’s Athletic Rehabilitation Division, which also performs the checkups of Russia’s national teams. “It combines a walk-in clinic, a hospital, a general rehabilitation center and a sports rehabilitation division. It’s the only one of its kind in the world. The checkups that we began performing on KHL players this week were a glimpse into the medicine of tomorrow. No sports club, not even the NHL, performs such checkups.”
Based upon the first round of examinations, three KHL players were found to have heart problems. These athletes were referred to cardiologist specialists to undergo more testing.
“After seeing the results of the first day, we can confidently say that the KHL’s strategy has been proven correct,” said Nikolai Durmanov, KHL Medical Center Director. “But this doesn’t mean that we’ll be banning players; that’s a decision for the cardiologists to make.”
“Hockey is an extreme profession and therefore professional players must be checked in about the same way as cosmonauts. All of the league’s players will be checked thoroughly. We’ll be doing laboratory diagnostics, an analysis of blood biochemistry, computer tomography, an echocardiograph, and many other functional tests.”
As a result of these examinations, a thorough medical history will be written up for each player, which will be a useful tool for the club’s medical staff and management. This large medical database will only be accessible to authorized individuals as a result of the KHL’s commitment to the confidentiality of medical information. The KHL Medical Passport will not indicate the name of a player, but rather a special identification code known only to the player himself as well as the doctors and authorized employees of the KHL Medical Center.
This process will also aid in the KHL’s commitment to combat doping by its athletes. Every player will have his own anti-doping profile as part of his KHL Medical Passport, which will indicate all the latest changes in his doping tests in order to determine whether he has ingested any banned substances.
“This practice has become commonplace in sports such as biathlon, ski racing, bicycle racing or skating sports,” said Durmanov. “Of course, the doctors will also take into consideration the player’s genetic peculiarities—the so-called steroid profile. Many players show false positives in tests due to high natural levels of testosterone. Knowing the athlete’s peculiarities makes it possible to avoid a number of possible misunderstandings in doping testing.”
The KHL Medical Center will perform independent checkups of all the league’s players, both Russian and foreign, during the 2008-2009 season.
Filed in: Non-NHL Hockey, European Hockey | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: khl, kontinental+hockey+league,
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