What is whiplash injury?
This injury usually happens as a result of acceleration and deceleration forces on the neck.
The most common cause is owing to the road traffic accidents and the other causes are roller-coasters,sports related injuries etc. As a result of this injury may damage the bony and soft tissue such as in disc, ligaments,nerves.
The symptoms often takes sometimes to develop it may take 72hrs for the symptoms to appear.The common symptoms includes neck pain and swelling, stiffness and tenderness, headaches.
Grade 2- patient has neck problem and the range of motion is reduced with point tenderness.
Grade 3- in this grade patient has musculoskeletal and neurological problems like reflex and sensory deficits.
Grade 4- problems in the neck with fracture or dislocation.
There are different grades for the whiplash injuries,
Grade 1- patient complains the neck pain with tenderness and swelling but no physical signs.Grade 2- patient has neck problem and the range of motion is reduced with point tenderness.
Grade 3- in this grade patient has musculoskeletal and neurological problems like reflex and sensory deficits.
Grade 4- problems in the neck with fracture or dislocation.
How the Whiplash is diagnosed?
After the examination the X-ray,C.T or M.R.I scan can rule out any serious injury or fracture.
Surgery is not need for most of the cases and commonly the injuries are limited to only the muscles, ligaments and tendons.
How can physiotherapy help in Whiplash injury?
The most important principle is to prevent the condition from becoming chronic. The most common whiplash grades one and two requires immediate physiotherapy intervention.
Physiotherapist are highly skilled and supporting with neck problems and they may give you hands on treatments like manual therapy, massages.They will help you by giving advises for doing exercises, and the tips for prevent further problems. In physiotherapy there are both the active and passive treatment for the whiplash injuries. The ultimate aim of the physiotherapist is to change the treatment from passive to active.
Passive treatments for whiplash are deep tissue massage, hot and cold therapy, and electrotherapy. In the active treatment includes various exercises. The physiotherapist will teach you various exercises to improve the range of motion and muscle strength.To conclude the physical therapy aim is to increase blood circulation ,reduce spasm and promote tissue healing.
Such a great post related to whiplash injury. I agree that a professional physio treatment can treat whiplash injuries. Thanks for sharing this informative article with us!
ReplyDelete