WHIPLASH
Mechanism of Injury
The term whiplash is commonly used to describe the sudden deceleration of a vehicle and the continued movement forward of a persons head and neck, and whipping recoil motion of the head and neck backward. Equally a reverse whiplash could be described from a rear end collision shunting the stationary or slow moving vehicle forwards, leaving the neck and head behind in a whipping motion, then again forward on the recoil.
Injuries and Proper Assessment
Torn muscles at the back of the neck are common, and doing nothing about the injuries may have long term consequences depending on how severe are the symptoms (The Québec Task Force, 1995)3. Most Whiplash Associated Disorders (WADs) result in mild overstretched soft-tissue injury such as ligaments, and do not cause tissue failure. These injuries go undetected by static imaging (X-ray & MRI), but are overstretched beyond their elastic limit, but not torn and result in instability and poor healing (Panjabi, et al, 1998)4. For that reason we carefully assess your whole spine, as stiffness in areas below the neck will exacerbated movement in segments of the neck already overstretched.
Treatment
Treatment and rehabilitation at our clinic is implemented to address this problem.
It is estimated that in 2007 there were 430, 000 people in the UK who made an insurance claim for whiplash injuries. That is nearly 75% of motor insurance claims (Wikipedia, 2009)5.
The Quebec Task Force Team on Whiplash recommended chiropractic manipulation along with, mobilisation, range of motion exercises. Most other interventions were not recommended including very restricted use of surgery, limited use of NSAIDS (3 weeks, such as ibuprofen) (The Québec Task Force, 1995)6.
