Whiplash Injury
An abnormal movement of the neck. It was traditionally thought to be a hyperextension flexion injury. Current research suggests that it is more complicated and there are likely five stages to it. The actual physical damage has not been identified satisfactorily on any available scanning method. The closest at present to identifying the pathology has been some fat changes in muscle on MRI scanning but this finding is still of unknown significance.
The inury itself occurs as the heavy head may often have movement independent of the torso and as a result the pivot point is the lower part of the neck. This is frequently the injury caused by a rear end collision road traffic accident but there are many other causes.