Many auto and motorcycle accidents result in whiplash injuries. Many also unfortunately involve a brain injury. Perhaps not so coincidentally, there are many similarities between whiplash and brain injury. Both includes many similar symptoms.
The biggest challenge with treating auto injuries is getting a proper diagnosis. Countless studies show that whiplash patients have objective, organic injuries; unfortunately; many of these injuries are difficult to pinpoint with conventional diagnostic imaging techniques, such as CT or MRI.
Further complicating diagnosis is the fact that the focal point of the injury in most patients is the neck. Due to the complexity of the cervical spine, many different structures can be injured and the symptoms of different types of injuries can overlap with other kinds of injures.
A current study looks at this problem; specifically, it examines the diagnostic challenge of differentiating whiplash associated disorder (WAD) from concussion in patients with neck injuries.
For many years, researchers have realized that many patients with whiplash present with symptoms similar to patients with brain injury. Over the last ten years, dozens of studies have been published showing that many whiplash patients complain of the same problems. The challenge is to determine which patients have a traumatic brain injury, and which have spinal injuries.
Because symptoms of traumatic brain injury can overlap with those of cervical spine injury, patients with symptoms of brain injury should be carefully examined for the presence of concussion.
Of particular concern are those patients who don’t seem to be recovering from the current treatment, or for those patients who experience personality changes after the collision. Undiagnosed brain injury can result in unemployment, divorce, depression, and other serious social and medical problems.
I’m Ed Smith, an Elk Grove Auto Accident Attorney with the most informative accident website available – www.autoaccident.com.
If you or someone you love has been injured in an automobile accident due to the negligence of another, please call me at 916-694-0002 for free, friendly advice. If you are outside the Elk Grove/Sacramento area, you can call us at (800) 404-5400.
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