Whiplash syndrome can be a complicated
condition to diagnose. It can be caused whenever someone is involved in a car
accident with speeds as little as fifteen miles per hour, even if the parties
involved were wearing a seatbelt. The condition can also be complicated to
diagnose because the symptoms do not always show up right away. The person can
experience pain in the neck immediately after the trauma or not for several
hours, several days or up to two weeks. All of these situations can constitute
whiplash but the more severe cases show up right away.
As soon as you are injured and suspect a
whiplash injury, get a diagnosis from an emergency room physician, a
chiropractor or a regular doctor. A diagnosis is important to your car accident
compensation solicitors because they need to see your medical records and
diagnostic information in order to help decide if you have whiplash, if there
was another negligent party and how much to file a compensation claim for.
Whiplash diagnoses can be hidden in obscure diagnoses like cervical strain,
cervical sprain or flexion extension injury to the neck. Make sure your car
accident compensation solicitors have the right diagnosis when dealing with
your claim.
When you are injured with suspected
whiplash injuries, you need to assess the degree of your symptoms. If you have
severe symptoms, make sure you keep your head completely still until the
emergency medical services or EMS arrives. They will put you into a cervical
collar and a long spine board and will transport you by ambulance to the
nearest emergency room. There you will be seen by an emergency room physician.
In mild cases, the doctor skips doing an
immediate x-ray. He or she will feel all the muscles of the neck and shoulders
for stiffness, swelling and tenderness. The doctor will look for abrasions,
cuts and bruising. You’ll often see an abrasion or bruising on the shoulder and
upper chest because of the seat belt or because of an airbag injury.
The doctor may remove the cervical collar
and, if there is minimal tenderness of the back of the neck, he or she will
check the range of motion of the neck, both passively and actively. In other
words, he or she will move your neck around without your help to see how stiff
it is and will then ask you to tip your head forward, backward, side to side
and have you twist the neck. He or she will ask you to squeeze their fingers to
check to make sure your upper extremity strength is good and will have you move
your legs against resistance in case there is a problem with your lower
extremity strength. Sensation of your body will be tested, sometimes by poking
the skin with a sharp object to see if you have sensation. Your deep tendon
reflexes (in your ankles, knees, wrists and elbows) will be checked to see if
they are normal.
Doctors who are suspicious of a more
serious injury will begin by ordering a plain film of the neck from the front
and side. If these are normal, many doctors will remove the cervical collar and
allow you to move your neck about. If there is still a suspicion of a more
serious injury, such as a cervical cord injury or fracture to the cervical
spine, the doctor will do further testing, such as a CT scan (computerized
tomography) or MRI scan (magnetic resonance imaging), in order to get a better
look at the neck, including the muscles. An MRI exam will outline the muscles
better than a CT scan, which will need contrast to outline the spinal cord.
If there is any question of nerve damage,
the doctor might go on to order an EMG or electromyogram. This is a nerve
conduction test that tells if there are any pinched nerves involved or damage
to any peripheral nerve. This could mean that swollen muscles, tendons or
ligaments are impinging on nerves and affecting the function of the nerve.
Most people take about two weeks to recover
their whiplash symptoms so they feel normal. The rest recover over several
months to a year. About 18 percent of people still have symptoms after two
years and are considered to have chronic symptoms. Let your car accident
compensation solicitor know if you have chronic symptoms because this will
affect the amount of the compensation claim you receive. Chronic symptoms will
generally pay more money than symptoms which eventually resolve.
If your symptoms last longer than two weeks
or are considered severe, you may be referred to a physiatrist or to a physical
therapist. A physiatrist is a doctor that is trained in the way the body moves,
especially after injury. A physical therapist is specially trained to evaluate
and treat musculoskeletal injuries like whiplash injuries.
These professionals will re-evaluate you.
They will examine your active and passive range of motion to see how strong the
neck is and how stiff it might be. Your range of motion includes forward
movement, backward movement, sideways tilt and rotational motion of your neck.
They will also assess your strength (in your arms, legs and trunk), your
sensation (in all parts of the body) and your deep tendon reflexes. Any
abnormalities will be noted on your record before the professional begins
treatment.
Treatment often begins with deep tissue
massage using electrical stimulation or hand work. Then the practitioner works
to increase the range of motion of the neck in all directions, focusing
especially on the trouble spots. The practitioner can do things like pressure
point work that puts deep pressure on a small area of a muscle and allows the
muscle to “release” and be less tense. Strengthening exercises are done to get
your muscle tone back in a more normal way and things like ice and heat are
used to relieve inflammation. In more serious cases, a physiatrist might inject
a muscle with hydrocortisone fluid in order to break down the inflammation in
that particular muscle. That sort of treatment helps but is rarely done because
whiplash involves such a large area of the neck.
