Whiplash Injury Symptoms
When your neck and the bones in your neck, called the cervical spine, get hurt in a whiplash injury, it can cause different issues. Doctors usually call these symptoms “Whiplash-Associated Disorder,” which we shorten to WAD. Recently, the medical profession has adopted a newer term to describe these symptoms better, and that’s “Cranial Cervical Syndrome,” which we call CCS for short. It helps us understand that not only the neck but also the head (that’s the cranial part) can have problems after a whiplash injury.
Dealing with Brutal Headaches?
Your'e Not Alone.
This is one of the most noticeable and debilitating whiplash symptoms. As a result of whiplash, injuries to the neck are really bad headaches that just won’t go away. If you are suffering from bad headaches, there is a good chance you are suffering from WAD/CCS.
Experiencing Excruciating Headaches?
You're not alone.
After a whiplash injury to the neck, a series of symptoms can start, and it often begins with really, really painful headaches. These headaches can show up shortly after the injury, sometimes within hours, days, or even minutes, even if the injury didn’t seem very bad at first. What’s different about these headaches is that they get worse over time – they happen more often, last longer, and hurt more. And what’s even more puzzling is that many people who get these headaches have never had them before, and neither have their family members. It’s like they come out of nowhere because of the injury to the neck.
What Whiplash Symptoms are Normal?
The description of these headaches spans from pounding and throbbing to a sensation of constrictive pressure that can resemble a tightening grip around the skull. For those previously familiar with migraines, the post-whiplash headache is often likened in character, but substantially more intense and frequent. Nausea and, at times, vomiting accompany these headaches. This debilitating pain frequently drives patients to seek solace in dark, quiet rooms, often attempting to sleep it off. At times, patients experience an “aura” – a forewarning like a surge in neck pain or neurological changes such as difficulty in word-finding or muscle weakness.
A Deteriorating Quality of Life
As time passes, the impact of these headaches spirals. They obstruct focus, memory, concentration, and overall functionality. Work, school, social interactions, and family life all suffer significant setbacks. While these headaches align with the profile of intractable migraines, standard migraine medications often fall short in addressing their intensity and persistence.
Whiplash Associated Disorder &
Cranial Cervical Syndrome
Symptoms are usually transient (they come and go) and may include:
- Confusion, Concentration Difficulties, Inability to perform duties at work or in school as a result of the Headaches described above from neck trauma.
- Severe neck pain, pain between the shoulder blades.
- Pain radiating down the arms, back, or legs from the neck.
- Weakness in the arms, dropping objects, fine motor dyscoordination such as change in penmanship, difficulty buttoning, or opening jars.
- Lower extremity weakness, balance problems, veering, falling.
- Bladder incontinence, sexual dysfunction.
- Double vision, change in vision, loss of color vision.
- Facial weakness or numbness.
- Swallowing difficulties, gastric emptying syndrome.
- Myoclonic jerking movements, often repetitive and at night, mistaken for true epilepsy or seizures.
- Autonomic disorders including tachycardia, orthostatic hypotension (primary cardiac issues must be ruled out by cardiac testing), excessive sweating.
- Secondary depression, insomnia, anxiety, loss of social relationships and disruption of personal and Romantic relationships due to the above symptoms.
Decoding Whiplash Associated Cranial Cervical Syndrome
When you visit a trained medical provider familiar with whiplash injuries, they’ll begin with a detailed history and thorough physical examination, whether it’s days or years after the accident. Following this, a series of radiological imaging studies, including routine x-rays, a CT scan, and an MRI scan of the cervical spine, will be conducted. However, often these studies show normal results, leaving both you and your provider in a difficult situation, without an explanation or effective treatment.
The challenge lies in the fact that conventional x-rays, CT scans, and regular MRI scans don’t reveal the underlying causes of the Whiplash Associated Cranial Cervical Syndrome. To effectively diagnose this syndrome, two additional studies are essential: the Cervical Digital Motion X-ray (C-DMX) and the upright positional cervical MRI scan (CpMRI). C-DMX, a low radiation digital video fluoroscopic movie of your cervical spine in motion, assesses vertebra stability and identifies abnormalities between the top two cervical vertebrae. Upright positional MRI scanning allows you to move your neck during the study, providing insight into spinal elements’ behavior under stress caused by whiplash injury. This comprehensive approach leads to a deeper understanding of your injuries, enabling an effective treatment plan to be crafted.
Navigating Whiplash: Causes and Consequences
In some instances, the forces at play can lead to severe outcomes, including fractures of C1 or C2, resulting in profound neurological deficits or even fatality. More commonly, a gradual development of a complex syndrome unfolds over time, known as the Whiplash Associated Disorder (WAD) or Cranial Cervical Syndrome (CCS). The core symptom, persistent post-whiplash migraine headaches, and related symptoms are elaborated upon in a section dedicated to identifying surgery-eligible patients.
Beyond this, whiplash injuries to the cervical spine can arise from various causes. Essentially, any form of trauma, regardless of age or intensity, can trigger the whiplash phenomenon in the neck. This encompasses scenarios such as sports injuries, playful accidents with children, and even diving mishaps, among others.
