Member Article

Why Physiotherapy is Important

On Medical’s physiotherapy manager, Cheryl Dixon, discusses why physiotherapy is important to those who are injured in road traffic accidents…

If you’ve been in a car accident, the vigorous movement of your head backwards (hyperextension) or forwards (hyper flexion) can result in overstretching the soft tissues, such as ligaments, tendons and muscles, which causes injury. In rare cases, injury to the bone or nerves may occur.

Whiplash symptoms can include neck pain and stiffness, tenderness over the neck muscles, reduced and painful neck movements and headaches. While symptoms usually develop over a few hours, they tend to become worse the day after the injury, and may continue to worsen for several days afterwards.

Physiotherapy can play an important role in providing early reassurance, advice and education on how to best manage symptoms. Research has shown that returning to normal activities as soon as possible after a whiplash injury is beneficial to recovery. Physiotherapists will advise on the right type of active exercises to do to ease pain and restore range of movement and strength of the neck and scapular muscles. Exercises combined with other treatment techniques, such as joint and soft tissue mobilisations, are likely to be effective in reducing pain and restoring normal function.

Early reassurance, advice, education and return to normal function are very important following a whiplash injury. Physiotherapists are experts in the field of rehabilitation and are best placed to provide a tailored treatment plan to assist recovery. It is beneficial to commence physiotherapy treatment within the acute phase, following an injury, i.e. the first two weeks. However, advice and treatment can still be sought at a later stage in the recovery process.

The amount of physiotherapy required in whiplash cases will vary according to the severity of the injury, but on average, six sessions will be sufficient in the majority of cases. Physiotherapists aim to restore function and reduce pain through education and advice, home exercise plans, and a range of techniques such as soft tissue massage, joint mobilisations, taping techniques and acupuncture.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by On Medical .