Motor Accidents - Whiplash Injuries

Disorders relating to whiplash or whiplash injuries can be referred to as a series of injuries that are caused to the neck by its sudden distortion. The association of whiplash can be traced to accidents relating to motor vehicles, also when a vehicle gets hit in its rear area. This injury can, however be sustained in several other ways, inclusive of falls from horses or bicycles or head banging.

Cause

The precise mechanism of injury causing whiplash injuries has still been unknown. Whiplash injuries might be a result of the stretching of spine in an impulsive manner, or the ligament in particular. The anterior longitudinal ligament gets stretched in such a way that tears chuckle round the cheeks. Here, the head tends to snap forward and backward, thereby causing whiplash injury.

Whiplash is likely to be caused by any of the motions similar to a collision at the rear-end of a motor vehicle. This might happen on roller coasters, through sports injuries like skiing accidents, transportation modes like airplane travel, and also by being shaken or hit. Note that "Shaken Baby Syndromea" can culminate in to whiplash injuries.

Symptoms

Symptoms of whiplash injuries, as reported by victims are inclusive of aching to back and neck, shoulder pain, sensory disturbance like needles and pins to legs and arms, and headaches. Injury can immediately be followed by symptoms. However, they get noticed after passage of some days only. Whiplash generally gets confined to spinal cord, i.e. the bone which exists between bone and neck. The most widespread areas of the spinal cord that get affected by injuries of whiplash are mid-back, i.e. middle area of the spine, and the neck.

Diagnosis

Diagnosis takes place by going through the history of the patient, along with a neck and head examination. Bone fractures can be located by X-rays. They might also involve utilization of medical imaging for determining the occurrence of any other injuries.

Consequences

Whiplash consequences range between mild pain (for a day or two) and severe disability. This disability can result in restricted movement of the head or cervical spine. This can be at times followed by persistent pain as well.

Protection against whiplash

Efforts in the direction of protection usually get hampered by inadequacy of knowledge regarding reasons behind the occurrence of whiplash injuries. To date, preventive measures have been focused on the design of car seats, primarily through the introduction of head restraints. Such an approach is probably problematic due to the assumptions that whiplash injuries are caused due to mechanical factors. This theory has not been proved yet. Improvements in geometry of the car seats by going for better energy absorption and better design is likely to offer extra benefits. The devices which are active tend to move the human body in a crash, so as to shift loads on car seat.

Certain manufacturers of a car have started implementing various devices relating to whiplash protection in products of theirs for reducing risks as well as severity of the injury. Some of them include Mercedes-Benz-A-Class AHR, i.e. Active Head Restraint, Toyota WIL, i.e. Whiplash Injury Lessening, and many more.