Car Accident Injuries FAQ’s
Lower Back Injury: The Doctor Explains About Injuries from Car Accidents Car accidents can cause herniations, protrusions, and other injuries to a person’s lower back (lumbar spine), upper back (thoracic spine), and neck (cervical spine). In this video clip, a doctor was asked to explain how car accidents can cause spinal injuries. Video Transcript: This […]
Lower Back Injury: The Doctor Explains About Injuries from Car Accidents
Car accidents can cause herniations, protrusions, and other injuries to a person’s lower back (lumbar spine), upper back (thoracic spine), and neck (cervical spine).
In this video clip, a doctor was asked to explain how car accidents can cause spinal injuries.
Video Transcript:
This is a model of the spine and this is the back of the head of the skull. So when you’re looking at it from the side view this is a neck thoracic, or the spine at the chest, the lumbar spine.
The spine as I usually try to describe it, made of little blocks, that are stacked on top of each other like bricks, in between are the discs that act like shock absorbers or cushions. Over time several things can happen these things they can wear down over time, the disk can collapse.
If you have an injury with a trauma that forces you forward or sideways you can have enough force to injure the discs and symptoms such as radiculopathy or sciatica. We talk about pinching of the nerves, the discs can bulge back and press on a nerve, that can press it against the bone, and that pinching or compressing of the nerve can give you the symptoms.
Question: I suppose in the model you’ve got there these little plastic things between the white blocks, is that what represents the disks?
These white blocks between, the white little plastic cushions are the disks, the white area here is the bone, and these yellow things coming out are the nerves.
Question: I see, so when there’s a disc herniation how does that affect a nerve?
Answer: Well, the disc herniation or disc protrusion will come back and will actually compress or pinch the nerve against the wall of the bone and put pressure on the nerve as it’s trying to come out of this opening.
Question: Can that lead to symptoms like radiculopathy, that traveling pain that you described? Answer: Yes.
Question: Now, can a car wreck affect disks, can it hurt discs?
Answer: Well, any type of injury with enough force can hurt it.
Question: How might that happen in a car wreck if you can demonstrate that with the spine in your hands?
Answer: Well now, obviously if somebody’s sitting they would be sitting this way. If they’re driving they’d have a belt across them this way. If you have enough force what usually happens to the spine, the person gets thrown forward but, there’s usually some force that catches them.
So, you can put a force on the spine, what we call a flexion movement where the spine goes forward with enough force that can injure muscles, ligaments, discs, that are surrounding the area and then usually you get thrown back with a recoil force.
