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Journal Article

Citation

Janes JM, Hooshmand H. Proc. Am. Assoc. Automot. Med. Annu. Conf. 1964; 8: 36-46.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1964, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The concept of cervical sprain as the pathologic entity in extensionflexion injuries of the neck has been elucidated and cervical sprain is presented as a better term than whiplash injury. Thirty-two patients have come to posterior fusion at the Mayo Clinic from a group of more than 10,000 patients with pain in the neck seen in the years 1956 through 1963. Study of these 32 patients and the many others with a similar injury have led us to the following conclusions:

1. Not all patients with pain in the neck are neurotics.

2. Not all pains in the neck are relieved by settlement of the litigation.

3. Cervical fusion has a place in the treatment of severe extension-flexion injuries of the neck in carefully selected patients.

Since 1928 the term "whiplash" has been commonly used to describe the subject of our presentation. It apparently was coined by a Los Angeles orthopedist, Doctor Harold E. Crowe. It is not a good term even to describe the mechanism of the injury as a whip does not carry a 7-pound weight at its tip as does the neck.

Many years ago a patient who suffered a low back injury and continued to complain of pain was often considered a neurotic and a malingerer. The diagnosis was "railway spine". This concept largely disappeared after Mixter and Barr's work on the intervertebral disk. More recently patients who have experienced the so-called whiplash injury have been told to settle their litigation and their symptoms would disappear. Other patients have been advised to see the psychiatrist, and still others have undergone prolonged physical therapy.

In our approach to the problem we have tried to follow the advice of Stack, of Chicago, that is, "to name a structure related to the spine that has been injured as well as the level. We believe that the term "cervical sprain" describes most of the injuries resulting from an extension-flexion injury to the neck. There are exceptions and some of these will be mentioned.

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