Evaluation of Balance Disorders During the First Month After Whiplash Injury.

A part from cervical pains, dizziness is the most common complaint after whiplash injury of the neck. Dizziness was attributed to lesions of the peripheral vestibular organ and the cervical proprioceptive system and to central pathways in the brainstem, the cerebellum, and the hypothalamus. Soft-tissue hemorrhage, swelling and ruptures of neck muscles and ligaments, and brain edema and hemorrhages were described in laboratory animals after flexion-extension injury to the neck. It is possible that similar damage may be caused by whiplash injury in humans [1-4]. Likely, the effect of these lesions will be noted immediately after the accident and will decrease as a function of passing time. Hemorrhages and tissue swelling may resolve and may be absorbed, and remission of most symptoms may take place. Furthermore, the vestibular system possesses the ability to undergo central adaptation and compensation in recuperating the ability to stay in balance. Therefore, the reasonable management of this disorder is to evaluate patients immediately after the injury and months or years later. To the best of our knowledge, patients with whiplash injury were not studied during the acute stage after the accident. The purpose of this study was to investigate the auditory and balance system during the first month after whiplash injury to the neck.