What Can Be Learned from The 2010 Soccer World Cup and Car Accidents

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Side view: Normal neck curve on the left; abnormal on the right.

Post-traumatic cervical spine kyphosis is coupled with a poor prognosis for recovery. Consequently, cervical kyphosis is very important to document in whiplash-injured patients. Radiologist Lee Hadley, MD, states that the finding of cervical spine kyphosi

Danville, CA (PRWEB) August 4, 2010

Revealed this month at http://www.TheChiropracticImpactReport.com, researchers from Cankaya University, Ankara, Turkey, published an article in the European Spine Journal, titled (1):

Soccer causes degenerative changes in the cervical spine

In this study, the authors assessed the incidence of degenerative changes of the cervical spine joints in active amateur and veteran soccer players. They designed a cross-sectional descriptive study using biomechanical, radiological, and magnetic resonance assessments. The study subjects were active (30 years; n=15) male amateur soccer players, and their age-matched controls (n=13 and n=15).

The authors found that degenerative changes were prominent in veteran players, and the sagittal diameter of their spinal canal at C2 to C6 was lower when compared to controls. Narrowing of the sagittal spinal canal diameter suggests advancing degenerative spondylotic changes, predisposing these individuals to spinal cord myelopathy. Consequently, magnetic resonance findings of degeneration were more prominent in soccer players when compared to their age-matched controls.

“Soccer’s World Cup, 2010, has just finished. Having watched many of the games, I constantly observed players ‘head’ the ball, and often the ball had traveled more than half the length of the playing field prior to contacting the head while “on the fly.” – Says Dan Murphy, D.C.

Studies also indicate that cervical spine kyphosis certainly can occur as a consequence of whiplash trauma. They also indicate that cervical kyphosis is significantly more likely to be found in a whiplash patient population than in controls. Additionally, these cervical spine kyphotic deformities in whiplash-injured patients are unlikely to be caused by muscle spasm; rather they are much more likely to be the result of more significant ligamentous injury.

Other studies have found that:

• Repetitive microtraumatic events to the cervical spine, like “heading” soccer balls, initiates and accelerates cervical spine spondylosis.
• A single macrotraumatic event to the cervical spine, like whiplash injury, initiates and accelerates cervical spine spondylosis.
• The lateral cervical x-ray is the standard way to document the state of the cervical spine curvature.
• Whiplash trauma to the cervical spine can cause cervical spine kyphotic deformity.
• Post-traumatic cervical spine kyphosis is coupled with a poor prognosis for recovery. Consequently, cervical kyphosis is very important to document in whiplash-injured patients. Radiologist Lee Hadley, MD, states that the finding of cervical spine kyphosis should be considered to be a permanent injury.
• Cervical spine kyphotic angulation has been shown to accelerate cervical spondylosis and spinal cord myelopathy.
• Biomechanically oriented structural rehabilitation that includes postural training, specific spinal adjusting, exercises, and extension traction has been shown to improve and even reverse cervical spinal kyphotic deformity.
• In patients with cervical spine kyphosis that cannot be conservatively corrected to less than 10 degrees should be surgically corrected and stabilized.

If you’ve been in a car accident, you can learn more about these studies including references and find a doctor in your area by going to http://www.TheChiropracticImpactReport.com

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