Whiplash injuries refer to the process of the neck being flicked like a whip during a rear-end car or truck accident. Oregonians with severe whiplash injuries know that whiplash injuries are not laughing matters, despite comedies that dress actors in soft neck collars and suggest that everything is a fake. While it is true that an NFL receiver might be able to deal with a whiplash injury, most of us do not have their muscle mass, young spine, and loose ligaments. Today, I write about another aspect of whiplash injuries: what happens when the injured person has a previous neck fusion surgery?
The spine is an amazing creation. We have the bones (vertebrae) with a variety of holes to let the nerves get from the brain all the way to our fingers and toes. We have the disks in between the bones to give us flexibility.
The amount of injury anyone suffers from a rear-end collision depends on basically three factors: what physical condition are you in before the collision, what is the force that your body is subjected to, and what did your body actually go through during the collision (biomechanics). The force that actually impacts the body depends on many things including the speed of the trailing car or truck, its mass, and how much force is absorbed in the bumper and crush zones of the vehicles. Force, typically, is discussed in terms of "G" or multiples of gravity. That's the same measurement we use when we talk about astronauts blasting off into outer space.
Some victims of car or truck accidents are injured so severely that they have to repair their necks surgically. Occasionally, they have cervical fusions. When the surgeon fuses two vertebrae into one big one, the patient loses that flexibility between the vertebrae. Sometimes, the surgeon must fuse three disks together, reducing flexibility even further.
Then what happens with the next whiplash injury?
Well, when flexibility is reduced, then the force is even greater on the disk spaces that still move and perform their flexibility function - the ones above and below the fused bones and spaces. A medical study confirmed this. Researchers calculated the peak physical strain on the anterior longitudinal ligament, which goes along the cervical spine. They calculated what is likely to happen based on an 8G force collision.
The results: The average increase in strain in the part of the spine that still could move increased 15.5% when two vertebrae were fused. The strain was increased a whopping 40.8% with a two-level (three vertebrae) fusion. (A.B. Dang, Spine, 2008 Mar 15;33(6):607-11).
Despite what comedy writers tell you, whiplash injuries are no joke.
Jeff Merrick, Oregon Trial Attorney
503-665-4234
