Whiplash is a problem that commonly is the result of a motor vehicle accident, but we often see similar symptoms and mechanism in our active patient base, if you have caught an edge snowboarding or wakeboarding and woke up with a sore neck you know what I mean. Patients with appropriate early care may recover in a few weeks or at most, a few months, but over 20% of people develop chronic pain when appropriate treatment is not implemented early after the injury. Whiplash is not a trivial problem, because once it has occurred, only 70% have recovered completely by one year and only 82% have recovered completely by two years. In addition to neck pain, there are many symptoms associated with the whiplash syndrome and include sleep problems, poor concentration and memory, blurry vision, ringing in the ears, fatigue, and weakness. We often tell patients there job for the next year after the collision is to get better! Although long, the following is a review of whiplash.

The term, whiplash, is confusing because it is both a mechanism of injury and the symptoms caused by a car accident. It is due to a traumatic event that causes the head to move suddenly (“whip”) in one direction and then recoil in the other direction (like I mentioned this is why many active patients can get this problem without a accident). The most common cause of whiplash is a motor vehicle accident in which one vehicle is struck from behind by another. However, it can occur when a car stops abruptly after striking a pole, a wall, or another car, and can also occur after a side impact.

Significant damage to ligaments, discs, and joints can occur even if the swings of extension and flexion are not excessive, but often the neck is forced to the extreme ends of normal range or beyond. Because the trauma is usually sudden, occupants of the car are not prepared for the impact. The muscles are relaxed, which allows more forces on the discs, ligaments and joints. Perhaps the most important fact about whiplash is that significant pain and structural damage can occur at crashes of low velocity. The Digital Motion X-ray (DMX) helps us to determine damage to the spine while your in motion, it’s the most advanced way to determine ligament damage.