WHIPLASH INJURIES AND TREATMENT
INTRODUCTION
Whiplash injury was first described by Crow in 1928 and is a major source of illness in Western countries. The term whiplash was used to describe the mechanism of injury, the injury itself, the various clinical manifestations that developed as a sequence of the injury, and signs and symptoms designated as “the whiplash syndrome”. In 1995, the Quebe Task Force on the Whiplash Associated Disorders adopted the following definition of whiplash: “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 or other mishaps. The impact may result in bony or soft tissue injuries (whiplash-injury),…show more content… The head and neck are good examples of bodily structures that will experience a great deal of inertia when in a motor vehicle accident.
The spine is arranged in 5 distinct segments: 8 cervical vertebrae, 12 thoracic vertebrae, 5 lumbar vertebrae bearing majority of the weight. The lowest segments are the sacrum and the coccyx which are fused. The greatest amount of movement occurs in the cervical regions it is orientated to achieve the motion in six planes of axis. Factors that increase the risk for injury are the circumference as well as the position of the head and body at the time of impact. Whiplash is the most common injury associated with motor vehicles.
As defined by the Oxford medical dictionary, whiplash is an injury of the soft tissue of the neck resulting from a sudden jerking of the head and neck. With cervical hyperextension injury, anterior neck muscles tear may occur. Though whiplash primarily affects the cervical regions, lower extremity injury can also occur due to impact against floor or dashboard. The effects of whiplash extend past neck pain. Irritation of occipital nerves from the injury may cause excessive…show more content… Vertebral spine column, neck arteries, temporal bone and sutura occipitomastoidea, dura meter, mandible, clavicle, ribs, sternum, hyoid bone and ventral neck fascia, stomach and kidney, lumbar spinal column, sacrum and coccyx. A training session was organized before the beginning of the practical work to practice the different tests. The treatment follows osteopathic principles according to the test-dependent dysfunctions, which were evaluated for each treatment session. These dysfunctions were recorded in the protocol form process. The applied osteopathic techniques are considered to be the standard osteopathic techniques and are commonly referred to the osteopathic literature. These techniques included direct techniques (high-velocity thrusts, muscle energy, myofascial release), indirect techniques (functional techniques, balanced ligamentous tension), and visceral and/or cranial techniques. There was no standardized treatment protocol; each osteopathic physician was free to decide the therapy