Whiplash and Brain Injuries

Last year I had the opportunity to take part in training and receive certification in Whiplash and Brain Injury Traumatology through the Spine Research Institute of San Diego (SRISD). We’ve all heard the term whiplash, but there is so much more to this injury than most people know.Did you know that over three million whiplash injuries occur each year resulting from motor vehicle crashes? Of these whiplash injuries, 500,000 people will develop chronic pain, and up to 300,000 will have some degree of disability. Apart from the effect on health, there’s a significant cost to society. Approximately $43 billion of total annual HARM is attributable to whiplash and related injuries. (HARM is a metric for quantifying the total societal cost of road trauma.)For the past 28 years, SRISD has focused research and education on the more common injuries sustained in everyday motor vehicle crashes, such as whiplash and mild traumatic brain injuries.This was an intensive 48-hour training program where I became familiar with the epidemiology of whiplash and brain injuries, the mechanical factors of motor vehicle crashes, and the wide range of physical injuries and clinical conditions that can occur. It’s been a number of years since my last physics classes, so I had to shake some of the cobwebs loose!During these courses, I learned how to conduct comprehensive physical examinations and about the latest applications of cutting-edge imaging technologies such as CT, MRI, single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and others. I learned how to provide patients with the most effective and comprehensive treatment and rehabilitation strategies to ensure optimal outcome potential. The program also included an intense discussion of forensic risk analysis, which considers how the various known risk factors can increase a person’s chance for injury or long-term symptoms.By understanding the unusual biomechanics of this form of trauma, diagnostic methods and treatment can be much more effectively administered in the clinical setting. I will share more of the information I learned during these courses in future blog posts.