Among the most frequent injuries sustained in motor vehicle collisions are so-called "whiplash" injuries--flexion/extension injuries to the soft tissues around the neck. A frequent area of dispute with the insurance company for a driver who has caused such injuries to my client is the length of time and treatment reasonably required for someone to recover. Insurance companies, their lawyers, and the expert witnesses they hire often contend that most people fully recover from such injuries within a relatively short period of time following a collision--perhaps 2-3 months. In reality, these nature and extent of these injuries and the duration of the symptoms are complex and vary widely. Relevant factors may include the injured person's age, height, seat position at impact, head position at impact, force of the impact (including accounting for the speed and size of the vehicles involved), and preexisting injuries or conditions.
With this in mind, I found quite interesting article entitled "Course and Prognostic Factors for Neck Pain in Whiplash Associated Disorders," in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, v. 32, Issue 2, Supplement, pgs S97-107, February 2009. This article was one of many which came out of decade-long research conducted by a task froce on neck pain and its associated disorders. A review of 47 studies led the authors to conclude that approximately 50% of whose with whiplash associated disorders will report neck pain symptoms one year after their injuries.
Based on my own experience in representing injured persons, this finding was not surprising. Whiplash injuries have been caricatured in movies and TV shows and they are consistently ridiculed or downplayed by insurance companies and their representatives. This occurs largely because the injuries to soft tissues cannot typically be seen on film studies --x-rays, MRIs and CT-Scans. Therefore, the diagnosis and treatment is largely based on "subjective" reports of pain from the patient or findings by the physician on physical examination, such as muscle spasm, tenderness or limitations on movement. Nonetheless, there can be no doubt--especially to someone who has experienced such an injury--of just how real and painful and debilitating a whiplash injury can be.
With this in mind, I found quite interesting article entitled "Course and Prognostic Factors for Neck Pain in Whiplash Associated Disorders," in the Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, v. 32, Issue 2, Supplement, pgs S97-107, February 2009. This article was one of many which came out of decade-long research conducted by a task froce on neck pain and its associated disorders. A review of 47 studies led the authors to conclude that approximately 50% of whose with whiplash associated disorders will report neck pain symptoms one year after their injuries.
Based on my own experience in representing injured persons, this finding was not surprising. Whiplash injuries have been caricatured in movies and TV shows and they are consistently ridiculed or downplayed by insurance companies and their representatives. This occurs largely because the injuries to soft tissues cannot typically be seen on film studies --x-rays, MRIs and CT-Scans. Therefore, the diagnosis and treatment is largely based on "subjective" reports of pain from the patient or findings by the physician on physical examination, such as muscle spasm, tenderness or limitations on movement. Nonetheless, there can be no doubt--especially to someone who has experienced such an injury--of just how real and painful and debilitating a whiplash injury can be.
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