Whiplash

Whiplash syndrome covers a large range of injuries that may occur with rapid movement of the head and neck such as in motor vehicle accidents and is a soft-tissue strain of the neck causing persistent pain and stiffness in the neck.

It has been shown that a variety of different tissues may be injured by a whiplash injury. Damage may occur to the muscles, the discs or facet joints of the spine and ligaments.

Symptoms

A whiplash injury may cause pain in the neck, back, arms and/or headaches.

Often there is no severe pain initially and one my think they have escaped injury, however, within hours or days there is an increasing pain or stiffness in the neck, back, shoulders or headaches. Restricted neck movement will frequently be a feature. Recovery time from a whiplash injury is extremely variable, ranging from days to years.

Causes