Whiplash (medicine)

Whiplash is the result of impulsive stretching of the spine, often the result of a rear-end collisionbetween cars or trucks. The QuebecTask Force on Whiplash-Associated Disorders defined whiplash as follows:

"Whiplash is an acceleration-deceleration mechanism of energy transfer to the neck. It may result from rear end or side-impact motor vehicle collisions, but can also occur during diving and other mishaps. The impact may result in bony or soft-tissue injuries (whiplash injury), this in turn may lead to a variety of clinical manifestations (Whiplash-Associated Disorders)."

The consequences of whiplash range from mild painfor a few days, to severe disabilitycaused by restricted head movement or instability of the cervical spine, sometimes with persistent pain.

Reliably diagnosing a whiplash injury or disorder is not difficult for a trained doctor. If a patient cannot achieve the full motion, or has excessive range of motion, the probable ultimate cause is the whiplash motion.

A rising percentage of car accidentsresult in a refund claim based on whiplash. This is partly due to an increased awareness, and it has consistently been found that few false claims are raised.

Four grades of Whiplash-Associated Disorder were defined by Quebec Task Force :

• Grade 1: complaints of neck pain, stiffness or tenderness only but no physical signs are by the examining physician.
• Grade 2: neck complaints and the examining physician finds decreased range of motion and point tenderness in the neck.
• Grade 3: decreased range of motion plus neurological signs such as decreased deep tendon reflexes, weakness, insomnia and sensory deficits.
• Grade 4: neck complaints and fracture or dislocation, or injury to the spinal cord.

Symptom reported by suffers include: ringing or whistling in the ear, headache, deafness, memory loss, dizziness, depression, jaw joint pain and difficulty in swallowing.

The Quebec Task Force explained that the forces required to cause injury to the neck are greater than those required to cause a stress response

In general, the term whiplash is preferred more by lawyersthan by doctors, as it describes the method of injury as opposed to the etiologyof the disease.

External links

• Whiplash Symptoms Can Be Deceiving

• Whiplash101.com by the Spinal Injury Foundationnl:Whiplash

sv:Whiplash

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
It uses material from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiplash+%28medicine%29 Wikipedia article Whiplash (medicine).