Acceleration related injury of the cervical spine in restrained car drivers. Investigations on the trauma mechanism and severity of injury

The analysis of 1,176 whiplash-type neck distortions was sought from a tota l of 3,838 restrained car driver incident reports. The percentage of these injuries increased from less than 10 % in 1985 to over 30 % in 1997. These occurred mostly with head-on or with multiple collisions, and only in 15 % with pure rear-end collisions. In 23,2 %, delta v amounted 10 km/h or less, which corresponds to a very minor crash. The average by was the highest in the cases of head-on collisions. Letters were sent to the injured to find out about the duration and type of complaints caused by a cervical spine in jury. Of the 138 patients who returned the questionnaires, 121 (88 %) indic ated that they had or were still suffering from their symptoms. Percentage of various complaints were as follows: pain (74 %), tension (6 %) and stiff ness (5 %) in the head (27 %), neck (55 %) and shoulder (8 %). The duration of the complaints was longest after multiple collisions and when the onset of complaints was later than 24 hours after trauma. Women and elderly pers ons predominated slightly in the group with longer duration of complaints. A correlation between the severity of the accompanying injuries and duratio n of complaints occurred. Also, with this retrospective study there was con siderable difficulties in the lack of adequate follow-up for these patients with less severe injuries. in order to better evaluate this problem, prosp ective studies are necessary which include documentation of diagnosis, trea tment protocols, duration and type of complaints.