Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Disc Injuries in Rear Impacts


Disc Injuries in Rear Impacts
               
       Disc injuries following rear-end impacts are often observed in clinical practice by physicians, many following in the low-speed delta-V range. I have seen many disc bulging or herniation cases over the years in the delta-V range of 4 to 10 mph. Most of these disc cases had preexisting degeneration in the spine noted with imaging studies or out-of-position issues leading to susceptibility. Smith evaluated 72 real-world rear impacts with accident reconstruction to determine the delta-Vs and the types of injuries that were diagnosed by physicians. Disc bulges or herniations were found in the cervical spine with delta-Vs as low as 8km/h and in the lumbar spine as low as 11.3 km/h. Yoganandan et al. exposed four entire human cadavers to rear impacts with 4.4 to 6.8m/sec (9.8 to 15.2 mph) delta-V and a mean of 3.3 or 4.5g acceleration. After single impact, the cervical spine was analyzed for any traumatic findings using standard radiology and CT scanning. X-ray and CT analysis only found an avulsion fracture of the C5 body and C5-C6 disc distraction injury without a fracture. Then the specimens underwent cry sectioning to determine if any soft tissue injuries occurred that were not noted in the radiological evaluation. Cryosectioning revealed the following: annular tears at C5-C6, diastasis of C1-C2 and C5-C6 zygapophysical joints with associated tears of capsular ligaments, tears of C6-C7 ligamentum flavum, and tear/rupture of C5-C6 anterior longitudinal ligament.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It’s never close to becoming strongly related to the internet,
nonetheless my spouse merely transferred and also found the phrase
blog writer on the watch's screen. In her own little brown eyes, the lady seriously seen booger, and also inquired about exactly why I used to be examining about boogers. I actually haven’t chuckled so desperately in a few months.
Also visit my blog post - Female Car Insurance