7/28/2019 Whiplash and Beyond
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GETTING OVER WHIPLASH _ THE MISSING BIT?
Physiotherapists are aware that spinal dysfunction can cause
organ
dysfunction if the nerve pathways to the organs are affected.
But consider
for a moment the reverse possibility. Dr Jean-Pierre Barral
has
demonstrated, using a variety of imaging techniques, that this
can be a
two way street organ dysfunction can indeed have a profound
effect on
the spine How?
All the internal organs have a direct or indirect connection to
the spine
via their support ligaments. Therefore any tension in these
ligaments can
put tension on the spine. If this causes misalignment of the
vertebrae it
can lead to the need for muscular compensation. Although the
support
ligaments are richly innervated they have very few nocieptors,
so we are
rarely aware of tensions in these ligaments until the ability of
themusculature to compensate for the tension is exceeded. We then
feel pain.
An example? A good one is Whiplash: the sudden acceleration
or
deceleration applied to parts of the body usually due to trauma.
We
typically think of the neck as taking the main brunt of the
force but other
organs and areas can be affected - for example the heart. Recall
that it is
surrounded by pericardium and held in position by suspensory
ligaments.
The pericardium is attached to the sternum via the
sternopericardial
ligament, to the diaphragm via phrenicopericardial ligament
and
posteriorly to the vertebral bodies of C4T4 via the
vertopericardialligament. During whiplash the heart, which is a
dense hollow organ, can
also be accelerated forward (or backwards) thus damaging the
suspensory
ligaments. Since there are few nociceptors in the ligaments we
feel no
pain; however as the ligaments heal they may fibrose, start to
put tension
on the lower cervical and upper thoracic spine because of
their
attachments and thus cause misalignment and an increase in pain
in these
areas. This may explain why patients have more pain weeks after
the
injury and why treating the cervical spine does not always
produce lasting
results. Visceral Manipulation has techniques which give rapid
andlasting results by helping to restore the elasticity of the
pericardial
support ligaments.
Jean-Pierre Barral is a French Osteopath who is pioneering
visceral
manipulation. He teaches regularly, has written a number of
books and
has devoted a lot of time to exploring and validating what is
happening
when he works with the techniques using ultrasound, fluoroscopy
and
other imaging methods. He does not write about any new technique
until
he has seen success in 200-300 patients!
![Whiplash injuries[1]](https://img.dokumen.tips/doc/110x75/58a996be1a28abc2518b501f/whiplash-injuries1-58a9972bb9aee.jpg)
