Effective Treatment For Chronic Whiplash Injuries

You might have wondered, “Who should I go to for treatment of my whiplash injuries?” You have many choices available in healthcare ranging from drug-related approaches such as narcotic medications to natural forms of treatment such as chiropractic, physical therapy, exercise, and meditation with many others in between. Trying to figure out which approach or perhaps combined approaches would best serve the needs of the presenting patient is truly challenging.

What Studies Show About Whiplash Treatment

To help answer this question, one study reported the superiority of chiropractic and physical therapy management for patients with chronic whiplash, as well as which type of chronic whiplash patients responded best to the care. The research paper begins with the comment from a leading orthopedic medical journal stating,

“Conventional treatment of patients with whiplash symptoms is disappointing.” In the study, there were 93 patients divided into three groups consisting of:

1) Group 1: Patients with a “coat-hanger” pain distribution (neck and upper shoulders) and loss of neck range of motion (ROM), but no neurological deficits;
2) Group 2: Patients with neurological problems (arm/hand numbness and/or weakness) plus neck pain and ROM loss;
3) Group 3: Patients that reported severe neck pain but had normal neck ROM and no neurological losses.

The average time from injury to first treatment was 12 months and an average of 19 treatments over a 4-month time frame was utilized. The patients were graded on a 4-point scale that described their symptoms before and after treatment.

Grade A patients were pain-free;
Grade B patients reported their pain as a “nuisance;”
Grade C patients had partial activity limitations due to pain;
Grade D patients were disabled.

Whiplash Treatment Results

Here are the results:

• Group 1: 72% reported improvement as follows: 24% were asymptomatic, 24% improved by 2grades, 24% by 1 grade, and 28% reported no improvement.
• Group 2: 94% reported improvement as follows: 38% were asymptomatic, 43% improved by 2grades, 13% by 1 grade, and 6% had no improvement.
• Group 3: 27% reported improvement as follows: 0% were asymptomatic, 9% improved by 2grades, 18% by 1 grade, 64% showed no improvement, and 9% got worse.

This study is very important as it illustrates how effective chiropractic and physical therapy is for patients that have sustained a car crash with a resulting whiplash injury. It’s important to note that the type of patient presentation that responded best to care were those with neurological complaints and associated abnormal neck range of motion. This differs from other non-chiropractic / non-physical therapy studies where it is reported that patients with neurological dysfunction responded poorly when compared to a group similar to the Group A patient here(neck/shoulder pain, reduced neck ROM, and with normal neurological function).

Atlanta Personal Injury Clinics is Ready To Help!

To schedule a complimentary consultation and learn how our comprehensive car crash and whiplash injury treatment may be of benefit to you or a loved one, just call our Scheduling Hotline at (770) 744-2510 and visit our website at https://www.APICpro.com. We are available to serve you as soon as today with multiple clinic locations throughout the Metro Atlanta area.

References:

1. Khan S, Cook J, Gargan M, Bannister G. Asymptomatic classification of whiplash injury andthe implications for treatment. Journal of Orthopaedic Medicine 1999;21(1):22-25.
2. Woodward MN, Cook JCH, Gargan MF, Bannister GC. Chiropractic treatment of chronicwhiplash injuries. Injury 1996;27: 643-645.