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Neck injuries and headaches.

• What are the chances that I will have long term or even permanent injuries from my neck and back injury?
• A Lower Mainland physician who limits his practice to treating patients with musculoskeletal injuries wrote in a report the following about the medical literature in support of the less than optimistic prognosis that he gave to our client about the future problems and work limitations he may have from his whiplash type injury:

  "PROGNOSIS: As it is now more than two and a half years since his motor vehicle accident of 2008 and Mr. xxx continues to experience episodic pain and dysfunction, I cannot say with certainty when, if ever, he can expect a complete resolution of his symptoms.

  A review of the current automotive literature reveals that there are many studies to suggest that a significant number of patients injured in mva's continue to have ongoing symptomatology for years. I enclose a copy of twenty such studies as documented by Nordhoff in his textbook entitled "MOTOR VEHICLE COLLISION INJURIES, SECOND EDITION".

  I am familiar with the study by Squires(a British orthopedic surgeon) who followed forty such patients for over fourteen years. I also enclose a copy of that study for your perusal.

  An editorial by Carette in the NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE sums up what I believe to be the current thinking on whiplash: "although the majority of whiplash patients become asymptomatic in a matter of weeks to a few months, twenty to forty percent experience symptoms that are sometimes debilitating and persist for years. The reality is that some patients with a whiplash injury do not recover completely", Carette, "Whiplash Injury and Chronic Neck Pain".

  A recent review article which I consider to be excellent by Gargan and Bannister (British orthopedic surgeons) in the British Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (a well respected and peer reviewed journal) concluded "most patients who are symptomatic after three months remain so indefinitely". In my opinion this data suggests a guarded prognosis for any further recovery for Mr. xxx. It is my opinion that Mr. xxx will continue to experience episodic flare ups of his condition in the future. These flare ups will require further treatment by health care practitioners such as physiotherapist, massage therapists or chiropractors. I believe Mr. xxx will remain precluded by his condition from seeking any occupation that would require repeated lifting and bending, heavy manual work or challenging overhead work."

  We would be pleased to email PDF's of these articles to you at your request. Please state that you would like the articles on the long term results of some whiplash injuries.