Whiplash Injuries: An Update

Acceleration - deceleration injuries : ‘ Whiplash Syndrome

‘Whiplash syndrome’ is a term commonly used to describe hyperflexion, hyperextension and other injuries to the spine, and, in particular, to the cervical region. It is not a universally accepted term, however, is commonly used in medical and legal settings. Cailliet (1991) reports that the term’‘whiplash’ was first coined by Dr. Harold Crowe (1928), who noted that acceleration-deceleration resu...

Whiplash injuries to the neck.

Biomechanical analyses of whiplash injuries using an experimental model.

Neck pain and headaches are the two most common symptoms of whiplash. The working hypothesis is that pain originates from excessive motions in the upper and lower cervical segments. The research design used an intact human cadaver head-neck complex as an experimental model. The intact head-neck preparation was fixed at the thoracic end with the head unconstrained. Retroreflective targets were p...

Early mobilization of acute whiplash injuries.

Acute whiplash injuries are a common cause of soft tissue trauma for which the standard treatment is rest and initial immobilisation with a soft cervical collar. Because the efficacy of this treatment is unknown a randomised study in 61 patients was carried out comparing the standard treatment with an alternative regimen of early active mobilisation. Results showed that eight weeks after the ac...

Chiropractic treatment of chronic 'whiplash' injuries.

Forty-three per cent of patients will suffer long-term symptoms following 'whiplash' injury, for which no conventional treatment has proven to be effective. A retrospective study was undertaken to determine the effects of chiropractic in a group of 28 patients who had been referred with chronic 'whiplash' syndrome. The severity of patients' symptoms was assessed before and after treatment using...