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Pre-existing Conditions INCREASE Bodily Injury
After a motor vehicle collision, many clients and new patients present with underlying degenerative conditions or prior injuries. It is imperative to understand how these conditions increase bodily injury. A recent study by Craig D. Newgard (2008) at the Center for Policy and Research in Emergency Medicine, Department of Emergency Medicine, Oregon Health and Science University, examined age and co-morbid conditions and their relation to bodily injury following a motor vehicle collision. What the research showed was that age had no bearing on the amount of injury, but on the body’s physical intolerance to traumatic forces. The author stated, “However, the assessment of serious injury as the outcome may be less effected by the presence of comorbid conditions and more reflective of the inherent physical intolerance to the biomechanical stress of traumatic events” (p. 1503). In other words, pre-existing conditions do not react to trauma forces the same way as healthy tissue, often resulting in increased bodily injury and prolonged recovery. Evaluation by a doctor that understands this important biomechanical concept is important in the correlation of bodily injury, causation and persistent functional loss.
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Spine & Injury Centers of San Antonio is a local network of 5 chiropractic offices. As a group, we are raising the standard of care for injured patients and their families.
If you have recently been in a car accident, or had a personal injury, sports injury, or exercise injury, and are experiencing back pain, neck pain, knee pain, whiplash, headaches, leg pain, etc, our San Antonio injury chiropractors can help!
Our goal is to get you back to living a pain-free life as quickly as possible.
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Reference:
Newgard, C. D. (2008). Defining the "older" crash victim: The relationship between age and serious injury in motor vehicle crashes. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 40(4), 1498-1505.
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