Whiplash Overview Part I: The Must Know Topics

Course overview

Hour 1 - Anatomy Review *Emphasize the unique anatomy of the cervical spine as related to spinal trauma. *Point out the importance of the uncinate process joints as related to disc herniation, the nerve root, the vertebral artery, and the spinal cord. *Explain how cervical spine injury may manifest clinically as low back and leg pain. Hour 2 - Define Sleep Hygiene *Explain the role for sleep and sleep's influence on the ability to safely operate a motor vehicle. *Summarize the influence of sleep on brain neurochemistry. Hour 3 - Awareness and Soft Tissue Injury *Explain the influence of awareness on an impending collision and the muscles ability to protect joints. *Explain how being "caught by surprise" by a collision is related to a poor prognosis for full recovery. Hour 4 - Whiplash History *Summarize the history of whiplash injuries, including mechanical mechanisms, biological mechanisms, pathology, diagnostics and management. *Define the issues that the early whiplash literature got wrong. *Emphasize the issues that early whiplash literature got correct. Hour 5 - Whiplash Today *Summarize recent advances in the understanding of whiplash injuries, emphasizing anatomy, diagnostics, pain production and pain suppression. *Integrate whiplash trauma, chronic pain, and chiropractic care. Hour 6 - Low Speed Collisions and Minor Vehicle Damage *Point out the mathematics of how a low speed vehicle to vehicle collision can result in passenger injury. *Explain why vehicle damage should not be used as a proxy for passenger injury. *Integrate the concepts of awareness, rotation, and pre-accident spondylosis in injury magnitude and prognosis. Hour 7 - Soft Tissue Injury and Repair *Define the three phases of soft tissue healing and point out the time sequence for each phase. *Justify the clinical interventions that have a positive therapeutic influence on each phase of soft tissue injury healing. *Emphasize the concept of motion in the healing of injured soft tissues, especially spinal adjusting (specific manipulation) motion. *Quantify acute injury and ultimate recovery(prognosis) by using measurement outcomes. Hour 8 - Treatment Duration, Frequency, and Prognosis *Summarize the biology and published data on treatment frequency and duration for whiplash spinal trauma. *Point out published studies relating to recovery and prognosis. *Reference the incidence of acceleration of spondylosis in long-term studies following a whiplash injury.