Abstract
Personal injury claims following whiplash injury currently cost the British economy more than £3 billion a year, yet only a minority of patients have radiologically demonstrable pathology. Patients sustaining fractures of the cervical spine have been subjected to greater force and might reasonably be expected to have worse symptoms than those with whiplash injuries.
Using the Neck Disability Index, we compared pain and functional disability in four groups of patients who had suffered cervical spine injuries. The four groups were: patients with stable cervical fractures treated conservatively, patients with unstable cervical fractures treated by internal fixation, patients with whiplash injuries seeking compensation, and patients with whiplash injuries not involved in litigation.
After a mean follow-up of 3½ years, patients who had sustained cervical spine fractures had significantly lower levels of pain and disability than those who suffered whiplash injuries and were pursuing compensation (p< 0.01), but had similar level to those whiplash sufferers who had settled litigation or had never sought compensation.
Functional recovery following neck injury is unrelated to the physical insult. The increased morbidity in whiplash patients is likely to be psychological and is associated with litigation.
Theses abstracts were prepared by Professor Roger Lemaire. Correspondence should be addressed to EFORT Central Office, Freihofstrasse 22, CH-8700 Küsnacht, Switzerland.
