It has been four years since the University of Nottingham announced research which could potentially prove some types of whiplash injury were physical. Whiplash, also known as neck sprain, is a controversial injury which is often suffered by drivers or passengers in motor vehicle accidents and is generally a neck injury. The injury is considered to be minor and a passing problem which is best treated with bed rest, painkillers and relaxation but since the year it was first written about in an American medical journal, the real biological facts about the issue have evaded medical understanding.

Scientists at the University of Nottingham decided to tackle the enigmatic injury. At the moment patients who suffer from whiplash are seen by a doctor and then they have spinal ex-rays to assure that the condition is not more serious. However, these techniques only highlight bone damage and cannot show the doctor painful muscle or tendon damage.

According to the Nottingham University website: “In the future, ultrasound could be used to reliably assess the extent of whiplash injury, speeding up the diagnosis and treatment of this painful condition,” and the long waits which people have to put up with after sustaining an injury in order to get a diagnosis may be substantially shortened.

The University say that: “Whiplash proves to be more than just a pain in the neck, it also hits the pocket — in the UK alone these injuries cost £3.1 billion every year, with 20 per cent of all motor insurance claims being whiplash related.” More research still needs to be undertaken, but ultrasound could be the key to unlocking the whiplash mystery.

A consumer report released in the US last year said that many cars don’t protect against whiplash injuries and that more could really be done to protect the health of drivers. According to an article on consumer reports.org a female art director recently suffered from the injury and is still experiencing pain. “In October 2006, Salisbury, 39, an art director, was driving on a rural highway in Stamford, Conn., when she stopped her 2002 Subaru Legacy wagon for workers who had blocked off one lane. The driver behind her, however, didn’t stop.

“I felt something pop in my neck,” Salisbury recalls. “My head snapped back and then forward when I bounced off the seatback. My shoulder belt actually frayed.” X-rays showed she had fractured parts of two vertebrae and severed a ligament. “My doctor told me the bones would heal by themselves but that I’m likely to develop arthritis there. Now, seven months later, I get agonizing headaches whenever it’s about to rain.”

Salisbury is not alone. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), which is funded by auto insurers, roughly 2 million whiplash claims are filed every year. An estimated 200,000 of those are serious enough to cause long-term medical problems. Taller people are most susceptible, medical experts say.” Discovering more about the nature of whiplash damage is essential to developing new treatments for sufferers like Lisa Salisbury. In her case X-rays showed that bones were fractured but in cases where the damage is more flesh related than bone related little can be done to assess the extent of that damage at present. Hopefully ultra-sound does hold the key to diagnosis and to treatment of this common problem.