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Products, drugs, and/or therapies discussed within this educational offering do NOT imply endorsement by CEU4U, Inc. or American Nurses Credentialing Center.
No off label use of product(s) are discussed in this educational offering.
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Course Sample:
Introduction Whiplash and traumatic brain injury are common events. Professionals in a variety of fields can benefit from accurately assessing people with these conditions and being aware of realistic expectations for recovery. Many of the symptoms from these events are subjective and can also be attributed to a variety of factors. This course will first discuss definitions of whiplash and traumatic brain injury. Then there will be a discussion of typical ways of assessing the severity of injury and expectations of recovery, especially related to mild brain injury. Some issues related to substances will be presented. Frontal lobe injuries will then be presented. These injuries are relevant for clinicians and law enforcement personnel as criminal behavior may be attributed to one of the orbitofrontal syndromes. Whiplash According to the Quebec study on Whiplash-Associated Disorders (WADs), "Whiplash is an acceleration-deceleration mechanism of energy transfer to the neck. It may result from rearend or side-impact motor vehicle collisions, but can also occur during diving or other mishaps. The impact may result in bony or soft-tissue injuries (whiplash injury), which in turn may lead to a variety of clinical manifestations (Whiplash-Associated Disorders)" (Spitzer, Skovron, Salmi, et al., p. 22S). They proposed a classification of WAD on two axes: 1) a clinical-anatomic axis and 2) a time axis. The clinical anatomic axis has five grades, corresponding roughly to severity. The proposed clinical classification of WADs is: | 0 | No complaint about the neck and no physical signs. | | I | Neck complaint of pain, stiffness, or tenderness only. No physical sign(s). | | II | Neck complaint AND musculoskeletal sign(s). | | III | Neck complaint and neurological signs (including descreased or absent deep tendon reflexes, weakness, and sensory deficits). | | IV | Neck complaint AND fracture or dislocation. | Regarding the time axis, duration of symptoms was noted. The authors said, "Continued complaints and residual disability after 45 days are important warnings of chronicity, justifying vigorous clinical intervention and mandatory interdisciplinary clinical consultation." |
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