Defining whiplash
"Whiplash" has become one of the most commonly used terms to describe neck pain, especially if it is the result of a motor-vehicle accident. Yet, whiplash is a frequently misunderstood condition. In fact, it really isn’t one specific condition at all; it is a problem that may be caused by damage to numerous tissues. The term whiplash was first introduced in 1928 to describe the motion that occurs when energy is transferred from a moving vehicle to the human body during a sudden stop or collision. Despite the facts that it is not a clinically accurate term and that others have been suggested, it continues to be used as a description for a variety of acceleration/deceleration injuries to the soft tissues of the axial skeleton. And despite the fact that it may pertain to other regions of the axial skeleton, whiplash is the term most often used to describe an injury to the neck.

Whiplash is the result of a sudden acceleration or deceleration of the head and neck in relation to the torso. It can happen not only from motor-vehicle accidents, but also contact sports, blows to the head, or violent shaking of the body. Since this condition can affect so many tissues, there is confusion about which tissues are actually damaged when the term whiplash is used to describe a client’s pathology.

Whiplash-related pain may be local in the neck, or it may radiate into the head, shoulder or upper extremity.

Part of the difficulty in treating whiplash is determining which of these tissues has been injured. Tissues that may be affected from the trauma include interspinous ligaments, the joint capsule of the intervertebral facet joints, nerve roots, dura mater, anterior or posterior longitudinal ligaments, the ligamentum nuchae, or the various muscles of the neck.

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