Cervical Spine Disorders--Known as Whiplash Injuries--Are the Most Common Form of Injury Following a Rear End Car Accident. A New Study Concludes that Whiplash Injuries are More Common in People Who Have Suffered the Same Injury Before.
Cervical spine disorders sustained in motor vehicle accidents are commonly referred to as whiplash or whiplash associated disorders. These injuries are generally acceleration/deceleration injuries to the cervical spine located in the neck of the victim. These injuries often result in long periods of sick leave, medical disability claims, disability pensions, and legal ramifications, all of which can have negative socioeconomic impacts not only for the injured victim and society at large.
A recent study seeking to analyze auto injury whiplash associated disorders resulting in long sick leaves studied 668 cervical spine disorder victims suffering from injuries related to vehicle collisions in which patients took more than four weeks sick leave as a result of their injuries. Researchers evaluated technical, medical, and biomechanical aspects of each injury including examination of Delta-V, the collision induced velocity change that corresponds to vehicle deceleration and one unidirectional impact vehicle collision.
Data for the technical aspects of the study rely on accident reconstruction, photos of vehicles involved in collisions, vehicle repair costs, and Delta-V information. The assessment composed of the technical medical evaluations as well as evaluation of each patient's individual physique to determine the extent of the injury caused by each accident.
The study concluded that Québec Task Force values for patients with pre-existing neck injuries or pre-existing signs or symptoms of back injury were significantly different from patients without prior history. In other words, it was far more likely for someone to suffer a whiplash injury if they had prior incidents of neck injury before the accident. In approximately 50% of the injury cases, patient history combined with the collision factors more accurately explain the patient's symptoms compared to the soul valuation the collisions technical aspects. The study’s authors suggested that a medical valuation based solely on Québec task force scores cannot assess injury without factoring in collision circumstances and recommend assessment of the collision’s biomechanical factors.
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